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I 


BX  9931  .B3  1872 
Ballou,  Hosea,  1796-1861. 
Ancient  history  of 
universalism 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2009  witii  funding  from 

Princeton  Tiieoiogicai  Seminary  Library 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/ancientliistoryof1872ball 


ANCIENT  HISTOEY 


UNIVERSALISM, 


TROM     THE 


TIME  OF  THE  APOSTLES  TO  THE  FIFTH  GENERAL  COUNCIL, 


WITH  AN   APPENDIX, 

TRACING    THE  DOCTRINE   TO   THE  REFORUA.TION. 


HOSEA    BALLOU,    2d.,    D.  D. 


WITH      NOTES, 

BY   REV.    A.    ST.  JOHN   CHAMBRlS,    A.M.,    AND   T.    J.    SAWYER,    D.D. 


»>©<«^ 


BOSTON : 

UNIVERSALIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

37        CORNHILL. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

THE 

UNIVERSALIST    PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 
In  the   office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION. 


The  reader  will  perceive,  in  the  commencement  of  the 
following  work,  that  I  have  not  introduced  a  statement 
of  the  Scripture  doctrine  upon  the  subject  of  my  History. 
For  the  omission,  which  some  may  consider  a  defect, 
I  submit  these  reasons :  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  brief 
statement  would  prove  useless,  since  every  one  would 
form  his  own  opinion  from  other  authority ;  and  it  was 
thought  that  a  satisfactory  discussion  of  the  important 
question  belonged  rather  to  the  Polemic  than  to  the  His- 
torian. Accordingly,  for  the  commencement  of  m}^  under- 
taking, I  fixed  on  a  date  posterior  to  the  publication  of  most 
of  the  New  Testament ;  and  yet,  as  it  was  desirable  to  take 
into  view  every  other  Christian  production  extant  of  the 
first  ages,  it  was  necessary  to  begin  as  early  as  a.  d.  90, 
before  some  of  St.  John's  writings  were  composed. 

The  attentive  reader  will  also  discover,  as  he  proceeds, 
that  the  Ancient  History  of  Uuiversalism  is  naturally  dis- 
tinguished, by  certain  peculiarities,  into  three  successive 
Periods :  the  First,  extending  to  the  year  190,  and  ejn- 
braced  in  the  first  two  chapters,  affords  but  few  indisputable 
traces  either  of  that  doctrine  or  of  its  opposite  ;  the  Second, 
running  through  the  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  chapters, 
to  the  year  390,  or  394,  is  distinguished  by  the  prevalence 
both  of  Universalism  and  of  the  doctrine  of  endless  misery, 
without  producing  the  least  disturbance  or  uneasiness  in 
the  church;  the  Third,  reaching  to  the  Fifth  General 
Council,  in  a.  d.  553,  is  marked  with  continual  censures, 


IV  PREFACE. 

frequent  commotions,  and  some  disgraceful  quarrels,  on 
that  subject. 

And,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  vary  my  general  plan,  so 
as  to  suit  the  peculiar  character  and  circumstances  of  each 
of  these  periods,  I  would  here  bespeak  the  reader's  attention 
to  the  method  I  have  pursued.  In  the  first  Period,  then, 
I  have  been  careful  to  state,  in  his  own  words,  the  opinion 
of  every  Christian  author  who  has  left  us  any  remarks 
concerning  future  punishment,  or  the  eventual  salvation  of 
the  world ;  arid  down  to  the  year  150,  I  have,  with  still 
more  particularity,  inserted  every  passage  which  I  thought 
belonged  to  either  of  those  subjects.  Accordingly,  it  may 
be  ex|3ected  that,  to  many,  the  first  two  chapters  will  prove 
more  tedious  than  the  rest  of  the  work.  In  the  second 
Period,  while  it  has  been  my  principal  object  to  give  a  full 
account  of  all  those  fathers  who,  during  that  time,  advo- 
cated or  favored  Universalism,  I  have  also  aimed  to  present 
a  correct  view  of  the  opinions  entertained,  the  meanwhile, 
by  the  Christian  world  at  large,  on  that  point.  In  the 
third  Period,  I  have  pursued  nearl^^  the  same  course ;  leav- 
ing, however,  the  common  sentiment  of  the  church,  concern- 
ing the  doctrine  in  question,  to  be  gathered  from  the 
controversies  and  quarrels  which  then  occurred,  and  which 
I  have  minutely  described.  Thus  far,  I  may  venture  to 
pronounce  the  Historj^  complete,  in  one  respect :  it  contains 
an  account  of  every  individual  of  note,  whom  we  haA'^e  now 
the  means  of  knowing  to  have  been  a  Universalist. 

In  the  Appendix  the  plan  is  very  diff'erent,  since  a  regular 
and  connected  history  of  Universalism,  from  the  Fifth 
General  Council  to  the  Reformation,  is,  with  me,  utterly 
impracticable.  Here,  therefore,  nothing  but  a  sketch  is 
attempted,  pointing  out  those  traces  of  the  doctrine  which 
I  have  happened  to  discover  in  the  course  of  reading. 

I  would  also  take  this  opportunity,  once  for  all,  to  ajp- 
prize  my  readers  of  the  sense  in  which  they  will  find  certain 


PREFACE.  V 

terms  and  phrases  used  in  the  following  work.  The  title 
hisliop  is  supposed  to  have  signified,  at  first,  only  the  chief 
minister  of  a  city,  or  territory ;  though  it  afterwards  be- 
came confined  in  its  application  to  a  distinct  and  superior 
order  of  clergy.  By  the  popular  epithets  ortJiodox  and 
heretic,  I  mean,  not  the  true  and  the  false,  but  the  pre- 
dominant, or  catholic,  and  the  dissenting,  or  anathematized. 
To  conclude,  I  have  frequently  spoken  of  the  Western  or 
Latin  Churches,  in  distinction  from  the  Eastern  or  Greek; 
though  they  were  not  finally  separated  from  each  other's 
communion,  till  the  ninth  century. 
EoxBURY,  Oct.  22d,  1828. 


A  SECOND  edition  of  this  work  was  published  in  1842. 
It  always  filled  an  important  place  in  the  literature  of  the 
Universalist  Church ;  and  it  is  now  republished  with  such 
additions  to  the  notes  as  later  researches  have  suggested. 

THE    PUBLISHERS. 
Boston,  Dec.  1st,  1871. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGB 

From  A.  D.  90  to  A.  D.  150 7 


CHAPTER    II. 
From  A.  D.  150  to  A.  D.  190 33 

CHAPTER  III. 
From  A.  D.  190  to  A.  D.  230 52 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Origen 69 

CHAPTER  V. 

Origen's  Scholars  and  Cotemporaries 103 

Appendix  to  Chapter  V. 121 

CHAPTER  VI. 
From  A.  D.  254  to  A.  D.  390 130 

CHAPTER  VII. 
From  A.  D.  390  to  A.  D.  404         .."....       191 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
From  A.  D.  404  to  A.  D.  500 224 

CHAPTER  IX. 
From  A.  D.  500  to  A.  D.  554 255 

APPENDIX. 

From  A.  D.  554  to  A.  D.  1500 283 

7 


THE 


ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  UNIVERSALIS!. 

CHAPTEE    I. 

FROM  A.   D.   90  TO   A.   D.    150. 

At  the  date  with  which  this  history  begins,  a.d.9o. 
none  of  the  apostles  are  supposed  to  have  been 
alive,  except  St.  John,  who  then  resided,  at  a 
very  advanced  age,  in  the  great  city  of  Ephesus. 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  suffered  martp'dom  at  Eome 
more  than  twenty  years  before  ;  and  St.  James  the 
Great,  and  St.  James  the  Less,  at  Jerusalem,  at  a 
still  earlier  period.  Of  the  deaths  of  the  other  apos- 
tles, nothing  can  be  pronounced  with  confidence, 
notwithstanding  the  accounts  given  of  their  martyr- 
dom by  some  ancient  writers,  and  adopted  by  many 
of  the  moderns. 

Nor  must  we  pretend  to  define  the  extent  to  which 
Christianity  had  now  spread ;  since,  on  this  subject, 
it  is  often  impossible  to  distinguish  the  true  from  the 
fabulous  accounts  of  early  historians.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  some  churches  were  already  established 
in  most  of  the  Roman  provinces,   especially  in  the 

7 


8  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

eastern.  But  the  number  of  professed  Christians 
must  still  have  been  very  small,  compared  with  the 
whole  mass  of  the  community ;  and  it  must  have  been 
composed,  with  some  exceptions,  of  the  lower  classes 
of  people.  The  rich  and  noble  were,  for  the  most 
part,  attached  to  the  ancient  forms  and  institutions ; 
and  the  men  of  great  learning,  and  those  of  refined 
tastes,  did  not  depart,  as  indeed  they  seldom  do,  from 
that  popular  course  where  they  might  find  reward,  or 
at  least  hope  for  admiration. 

The  Christians  were,  nevertheless,  not  an  obscure 
sect.  Their  religion  was  so  novel,  so  difierent  from 
every  other,  and  they  were  so  zealous  and  successful 
in  its  cause,  that  it  drew  much  attention  wherever  it 
was  introduced.  It  was,  indeed,  greatly  misunder- 
stood by  the  public  at  large  ;  and  still  more  misrepre- 
sented by  its  particular  enemies.  Of  these,  the  most 
bitter  were  the  heathen  priests,  who  felt  their  long 
unmolested  repose  disturbed  by  the  growing  desertion 
of  their  temples,  and  neglect  of  their  services.^  Still 
it  must  be  remarked,  that  the  Christians  had  su fibred 
very  little  persecution,  except  slander,  since  the  death 
of  Nero,  more  than  twenty  years  before.  But  the 
time  drew  near  when  they  were  to  encounter  pro- 
scription, danger,  and  even  death,  from  the  civil 
authorities.  It  was  but  four  or  five  years  afterwards, 
that  the  jealousy  of  the  Emperor  Domitian  revived  the 


1  Plinii  Epist.  97,  lib.  x.  and  Taciti  Annal.  lib.  xv.  cap.  44.  Afterwards,  or 
towards  the  year  150,  we  find  the  most  outrageous  calumny  heaped  upon  the 
Christians :  they  were  commonly  called  Atheists ;  and  all  kinds  of  licentiousness, 
even  such  as  cannot,  with  decency,  be  mentioned,  were  charged  upon  them.  To 
refute  and  expose  these  slanderous  falsehoods  was  a  grand  object  with  several  of 
the  early  Christian  writers. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  9 

storm,  which  raged,  with  some  considerable  intervals, 
for  more  than  two  centuries,  till  the  ominous  conver- 
sion of  Constantine  gave  to  the  church  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world,  and  the  glory  of  them. 

As  to  the  system  of  doctrine  held  by  the  Christians 
at  this  period,  we  can  determine  few  of  its  particulars, 
if  indeed  it  be  proper  to  say  that  such  a  system  then 
obtained.  Their  religion  had  not,  as  yet,  been  taught 
on  any  regular  plan,  like  that  of  a  body  of  divinity. 
Its  fundamental  truths,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the 
Messiah,  the  Christ  of  the  only  true  God,  and  the  Sa- 
viour of  men,  and  that  he  rose  from  the  dead,  neces- 
sarily engrossed  the  chief  attention  of  its  professors, 
since  these  were  the  important  facts  they  were  obliged, 
almost  continually,  to  urge  on  the  people,  and  to  de- 
fend against  opponents.  It  is  extremely  difficult  for 
us,  who  are  brought  up  in  a  state  of  society  Avhere 
Christianity  is  the  original  and  universal  religion,  and 
where  our  disputes  extend  only  to  its  particular  tenets, 
to  conceive  of  the  simplicity  in  which  the  first  preach- 
ers taught  their  faith,  when,  not  the  doctrine,  but  the 
truth  itself,  of  that  religion,  was  the  principal  point  in 
dispute.  When  people  were  brought  to  acknowledge 
the  mission  of  Christ,  they  were  considered  Christians, 
and,  if  their  conduct  became  their  profession,  they 
were  gladly  received  into  the  churches ;  though  fur- 
ther instructions  were  then  given,  or  afterwards  added 
as  opportunities  offered.^     Such  being  the  liberal  con- 


1  This  was  the  practice  of  the  apostles.  See  the  abstracts  and  accounts  of  those 
discourses  which  they  addressed  to  unbelievers  ;  Acts  ii.  14 — 41 ;  iii.  12 — 26 ;  iv. 
8—12;  V.  29—32;  viii.  30—38;  ix.  20—22;  x.  34—48;  xiii.  16—41;  xvi.  30—33;  xvii. 
2—4, 18,  22—34;  xxiii.  6;  xxv.  18, 19;  xxvi.,  xxviii.  23. 


10  THE  ANCIENT   HISTORY 

ditions  on  which  the  churches  were  gathered,  they,  of 
course,  admitted  persons  of  difierent,  and  even  of  op- 
posite sentiments,  on  many  points  of  doctrine.  Both 
the  Jewish  and  Gentile  converts  retained  many  of 
their  respective  prejudices.  The  consequence  was, 
that  disputes  had  ah-eady  arisen  among  them,  particu- 
larly concerning  the  obligation  of  the  Mosaic  rituals, 
on  one  hand,  and  the  heathen  schemes  of  philosophy 
on  another.  The  apostles  themselves  had,  years  before, 
interposed  to  decide  these  controversies  ;  but  even  thek 
authority  could  not  remove  the  prejudices  of  the  parties, 
nor  silence  their  contentions.  Even  at  this  early  period, 
some  of  the  Gnostic  believers,  in  particular,  had  prob- 
ably gone  so  far  as  to  separate  from  the  other  churches 
and  to  form  themselves  into  distinct  bodies,  which, 
however,  must  have  been  small  and  obscure.  We  can- 
not suppose,  after  all,  that  the  Christians,  in  general, 
had  so  soon  obliterated  from  their  faith  the  prominent 
features  of  the  apostolic  doctrine ;  especially,  when 
we  consider  that  most  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  now  in  circulation,  and  that  St.  John  still 
lived  to  be  consulted,  and  to  give  instructions.^ 

Proceeding,  now,  to  the  particular  subject  of  our 
history,  we  shall,  in  the  present  chapter,  produce  all 
that  can  be  known,  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  of 
the  views  entertained  by  the  Christians,  from  this  time 
till  A.  D.  150,  in  relation  to  a  future  state  of  punish- 
ment and  the  eventual  salvation  of  the  world.  The 
only  direct  light  that  gleams,  at  intervals,  through  the 

1  The  principal  facts  in  this  section  are  illustrated  at  large  by  Mosheim,  Eccl. 
Hist.  Cent.  i. ;  and  more  particularly  in  his  Commentaries  on  the  Affairs  of  the 
Christians,  before  the  Time  of  Constantine,  etc.    Vol.  1.  VidaVs  Translation. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  11 

obscurity  of  the  course  we  attempt,  is  derived  from 
the  few  Christian  T\Titings  of  this  period,  which  are 
still  extant.  These  are  the  productions  of  those  com- 
monly called  the  Apostolical  Fathers,  the  first  Christian 
authors,  whose  works  have  reached  us,  after  the  apos- 
tles themselves.  They  are  the  following  :  The  First 
Epistle  of  Clemens  Romanus;  seyen  Epistles  of  Igna- 
tius; The  Epistle  of  Polycarp;  The  Epistle  of  Barna- 
bas; and  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas.  Among  these,  we 
should  perhaps  insert  a  Relation  of  the  Martijrdom  of 
Ignatius.^  These  writings,  composed  by  men  of  little 
learning,  and,  for  the  most  part,  of  as  little  judgment, 
arq  still  valuable,  as  they  afford  some  notion  of  the 
state  of  the  early  Christians,  and  of  their  sentiments ; 
but  whoever  expects  to  find  them  instructive  or  edify- 
ing in  other  respects  will  rise  from  their  perusal  in 
disappointment,  if  not  with  disgust. 

The  Epistle  of  Clemens  Romanus  is   distinguished 
for  the  respect  it  received  from  the  ancient  _  ^^ 

■'■  ,  A.  D.  90—95. 

churches,  some    of  which  caused  it  to  be 
read,  in    public,    with  the   books   of  the  New   Tes- 
tament.      It   may   be    allowed,    at    least,    the    com- 
mendations,   that    it    is    simple    though    difi*use,  and 
that  it   contains    but  one   instance^  of  those  absm'd 

1  Of  the  Second  Epistle  of  Clemens  Romanus,  so  called,  the  genuineness  is  con- 
sidered doubtful  by  Eusebius,  Jerome,  Du  Pin,  Mosheim,  etc.,  and  wholly  denied 
by  Photius,  Archbishop  Usher,  Lardner,  Brucker,  Le  Clerc,  and  others.  Scarcely 
one  admits  it.  There  are  other  writings  extant,  ascribed  to  Clemens  Romanus. 
but  which  are  now  universally  considered  forgeries,  and  of  a  much  later  date.  I 
omit  The  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  a  forgery  of  the  first  century,  because  our 
present  copy  is  either  a  forgery  upon  that  original  one,  or  else  so  much  interpo- 
lated that  we  cannot  determine  what  is  ancient.  See  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc., 
Chap.  Supposititious  Writings  of  2d  Century.  The  reason  why  I  place  The  Epis- 
tle of  Bar7iabas,  and  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas  last  in  this  catalogue  will  be  given 
under  the  accounts  respectively  of  those  works. 

2  Clemens'  Rom.  Epis.  §  12.     Wake's  Translation.    The  date  of  this  Epistle  was 


12  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

allegories  which  abound  in  the  succeeding  fathers. 
Clement,  of  Rome,  who  was  bishop  of  the  church  in 
that  city,  and  perhaps  the  same  person  whom  St.  Paul 
had  mentioned  (Phil.  iv.  3),  wrote  this  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthian  Christians  for  the  purpose  of  dissuading 
them  from  their  quarrels  and  seditions.  Earnestly 
exhorting  them  to  repent  of  their  mutual  envy  and 
abuse,  he  adduces,  among  other  considerations,  the 
justice  of  God  as  a  motive  of  fear,  and  the  terrible 
destruction  of  Sodom,  and  its  neighboring  cities  as 
instances  of  the  divine  judgments  on  sinners.  But  it 
is  remarkable  that,  in  the  whole  of  this  Epistle,  about 
as  long  as  St.  Mark's  Gospel,  there  is  no  expressign 
which  discovers  whether  he  believed  in  any  future 
state  of  punishment,  nor  whether  he  held  the  salvation 
of  all  mankind.^  There  are,  indeed,  two  passages,^ 
which  may  naturally,  not  necessarily,  be  understood 
to  intimate  that  those  only  who  here  serve  the  Lord 
will  hereafter  be  raised  from  the  dead.^ 


probably  between  a.  d.  90  and  95.  Lardner  places  it  at  A.  D.  94  or  95 ;  Junius, 
at  98;  Baronius  and  Cotelerius,  at  92;  Dodwell,  Wake,  and  De  Clerc,  between  64 
and  70. 

1  He  probably  believed  in  the  salvation  of  all  mankind.  He  says,  ''  Let  us 
reflect  how  free  from  wrath  He  is  towards  all  His  creatures,"  Ep.  1,  xis.  See 
also  XX.,  where  towards  the  last  we  read,  that  God  "does  good  to  all,  but  most 
abundantly  to  us  who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  His  compassions  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,"  etc.  See  also  xsxii.  We  are  "not  justified  by  ourselves,  nor 
by  our  own  wisdom,  or  understanding,  or  godliness,  or  works  which  we  have 
wrought  in  holiness  of  heart;  but  by  that  faith  through  which,  from  the  beginning. 
Almighty  God  has  justified  all  men;  to  whom  we  glory  forever  and  ever. 
Amen."  — A.  St.  J.  C 

N.  B.  —  My  notes  through  this  volume  are,  for  the  most  part,  condensed  from  my 
MS.  History  of  "  Christianity  and  the  Church."  — A.  St.  John  CEiAMBRt:. 

Clem.  llom.  Epis.  §  26  and  49.  In  these  two  passages,  Clemens  expressly  men- 
tions the  resurrection  of  those  who  "  religiously  serve  the  Lord,"  and  are  "made 
perfect  in  love; "  but  nowhere  docs  he  assert  the  resurrection  of  others. 

3 Clem.  Rom.  Ep.  1,  xxviii.,  however,  seems  to  teach  otherwise.  In  that  all 
are  called  to  forsake  sin,  since  none  can  escape  God's  judgments,  nor  remove  them- 


OF   UNIVEUSALISM.  13 

111  passing  over  the  time  at  which  St.  John  is 
commonly  supposed  to  have  written 
his  Gospd  and  three  Epistles,^  we  "  " 
may  remark  that  this  last  of  the  apostles  died  at 
Ephesus,  about  the  year  100.  He  left  the  world  at  a 
period  when  old  errors  appear  to  have  been  spreading 
in  the  church,  and  springing  up  there  under  new 
forms  and  modifications.  They  were  chiefly  of  the 
Gnostic  kind,  derived  from  the  Oriental  or  Persian 
philosophy,  of  which  we  shall  have  a  more  particular 
account  to  give  in  the  sequel. 

We  come  next  to  the  famous  Epistles  of  Ignatius; 
the  o^enuineness  of  which  has  been  at- 

11  -,-„,-.,  .  -,  A.  D.  107,  or  116. 

tacked  and  deiended  with  an  immoderate 
zeal,    altogether  disproportioned   to   their  worth,  or 
real  weight,  in   any   cause   whatever.      Though    the 
question   is   still   involved   in    uncertainty,  we    shall 
follow,  with  some  doubt,  what  appears  the  prevailing 


selves  from  him,  here  or  hereafter.    The  passage  quoted  to  justify  this  is  Ps. 
cxxxix.  7— 10.  — A.  St.  J.  C. 

1  Of  the  Herniation,  the  date  has  been  a  point  of  much  dispute ;  but  there  seems, 
now,  a  general  inclination  to  place  it  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  Of  the 
date  of  St.  John's  other  writings,  various  opinions  are  entertained :  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  places  the  Gospel  atA.  D.  96,a  and  the  i;>^■.s«e.s  at  98;  Lardner  dates  the 
Gospel  at  a.  d.  68,  and  the  Epistles  at  80  and  85;  by  Le  Clerc,  the  Gospel  is  as- 
signed to  the  year  97,  and  the  Epistles  to  91  and  92;  Dr.  Owen  places  the  Gospel 
at  about  A.  D.  69 ;  Jer.  Jones,  at  97 ;  and  Du  Pin,  at  about  A.  D.  100. 


"  The  latest  and  best  authorities  now  attest  the  Apocalj-pse  to  have  been  writ 
ten  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  A.  D.  70.  Internal  evidence  is  con 
elusive  to  our  mind.  For  external  evidence  may  be  consulted,  Grotius,  Lightfoot. 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Stewart  ( Andover),  T\Tiittemore,  Blunt,  Gieseler,  Ewald,  etc. 
etc.  It  was  written,  probably,  about  A.  D.  67.  No  doubt  Nero's  second  name 
Domiiianus,  misled  early  writers  into  the  idea  that  it  was  the  production  of  the 
age  of  Domitian.  The  Apocalypse  is  positively  a  sealed  book  upon  any  hypoth- 
esis that  places  its  production  after  the  overthrow  of  the  city  and  temple  of 
Jerusalem,  when  ended  the  Jewish  dispensation.  — A.  St.  J.  C. 


14  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

opinion,  that  the  seven/  translated  by  Archbishop 
Wake,  are,  in  the  main,  genuine.  They  were  written, 
if  by  Ignatius,  while  he  was  conducted,  partly  by  sea, 
and  partly  by  land,  on  a  tardy  journey  of  nearly  two 
thousand  miles, ^  from  Antioch  to  Rome,  for  the  exe- 
cution of  the  sentence  of  martyrdom.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  bishop  of  the  church  in  the  former  city,  for 
about  forty  years,  and  to  have  been  personally  ac- 
quainted, in  his  younger  days,  with  some  of  the  apos- 
tles. His  writings,  however,  are  not  always  worthy 
of  his  advantages  :  they  contain  some  puerile  conceits,^ 
betray  an  inclination  to  the  Eastern  fables  concerning 
the  angelic  world, ^  and  abound  with  earnest  injunc- 
tions of  the  most  unreserved  submission  in  reason, 
faith,  and  practice,  to  the  clergy,  whose  authority  is 
often  expressly  likened  to  that  of  God  and  Jesus  Christ. 
We  cannot  ascertain  the  author's  views  concerning 
the  final  extent  of  salvation  ;  and  the  following  is  all 

1  Even  of  these  there  are  two  very  different  copies :  the  larger,  which  is  gen- 
erally supposed  to  be  much  interpolated;  and  the  shorter,  which  is  followed 
by  Wake,  and  almost  universally  preferred.  Mosheim,  however  (Comment,  on  the 
Affairs  of  the  Christiatis,  etc.),  seems  to  doubt  whether  the  larger  be  not  the  genu- 
ine, if  indeed  either  be  so.** 

2  His  route,  real  or  fabulous,  is  traced  from  Antioch  to  Smyrna,  Troas,  over  the 
^gean,  into  Macedonia  and  through  Epirus,  across  the  Adriatic  and  Tyrrhene 
Seas,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  and  thence  to  Rome.  The  date  of  his  journey, 
and  of  course  of  his  Epistles  and  Martyrdom,  is  placed  at  A.  D.  107,  by  Du  Pin, 
Tillemont,  Cave,  andLardner;  but  at  A.  D.  116,  by  Pearson,  Lloyd,  Pagi,  Le  Clerc, 
and  Fabricius.  If  the  Relatio7i  of  the  Martyrdom  of  Ignatius,  which  professes  to 
be  written  by  eye-witnesses,  be  genuine,  this  disputed  date  is  fixed  at  A.  l).  116. 
See  §  3.     Wake's  Translation. 

"  Ignat.  Epist.  to  the  Ephesians,  §  9.     Wake''s  Trans. 
4  Ditto,  §  19,  and  Epistle  to  the  Trallians,  §  5. 

a  Modern  researches  leave  little  doubt  of  the  essential  genuineness  of  the 
shorter  recension  of  these  epistles,  and  of  the  Syriac  versions  (discovered  in  A.  D. 
1838,  1839,  and  1842,  by  Archdeacon  Tattam,  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Mary  Dei- 
para,  in  Nitrian  Desert,  Egypt),  of  the  Epistles  to  Ephesians,  Romans,  and  Poly- 
carp.— A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  15 

that  seems  to  refer  to  a  future  state  of  punisliment : 
"Those  that  corrupt  families  by  adultery  shall  not 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  If  therefore  they,  who 
have  done  this  according  to  the  flesh,  have  suffered 
death,  how  much  more  shall  he  die,  who  by  his  wicked 
doctrine  corrupts  the  faith  of  God,  for  which  Christ 
was  crucified?  He,  that  is  thus  defiled,  shall  depart 
into  unquenchable  fire,  and  so  also  shall  he  that  heark- 
ens to  him."  ^  In  another  place  he  says,  in  rather  a 
disjointed  paragraph :  "  Seeing,  then,  all  things  have 
an  end,  there  are  these  two  indifierently  set  before  us, 
life  and  death ;  and  every  one  shall  depart  unto  his 
proper  place."  ^  In  the  same  unconnected  manner,  he 
says  again:  "For  what  remains,  it  is  very  reasonable 
that  we  should  return  unto  a  sound  mind,  whilst  there 
is  yet  time  to  return  unto  God."  ^  Some  of  these  pas- 
sages may,  indeed,  have  no  allusion  to  a  future  state. 
It  must,  however,  be  remarked  here,  that  the  author 
evidently  believed  that  certain  heretics,  and  perhaps 
the  wicked  in  general,  will  not  be  raised  from  the 
dead,  but  exist  hereafter  as  mere  incorporeal  spirits.'* 

The  Relatio7i  of  the  Martyrdom  of  Ignatius,  written 
by  Christian  eye-witnesses  of  his  trial  and  sufferings, 
contains  nothing  to  our  purpose ;  we,  therefore,  pro- 
ceed to 

The  Epistle  of  Poly  carp, — a  piece  which  evinces 
a    more   connected    tenor    of    thought 
than    most  of  the  ecclesiastical   writ- 
ings  of  that   age.      The    author   is    guilty    of    one 

A  Epist.  to  the  Ephes.,  §  16. 

2  Epist.  to  the  Magnesians,  §  5.  3  Epist.  to  the  Smyrneans,  §  9. 

4  Ditto,  §  2  and  7,  compared  with  Epist.  to  the  Trail.,  §  9,  and  Epist.  to  the  Ro- 
mans, §  2. 


16  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

exception  to  his  usual  moderation,  when  he  exhorts  his 
brethren  "  to  be  subject  to  the  elders  and  deacons  as 
unto  God  and  Christ."^  They  who  receive  this 
epistle  as  Polycarp's  ^  generally  suppose  it  to  have 
been  written  soon  after  the  martyixlom  of  Ignatius,  to 
which  it  alludes.  Polycarp  was  a  bishop  of  the 
church  at  Smyrna,  from  about  the  year  100,  till  after 
the  middle  of  the  second  century.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  disciple  of  St.  John ;  and  he  was  certainly 
regarded,  after  the  death  of  that  apostle,  as  the  most 
eminent  of  the  Christians  of  Asia.^ 

The  following  is  all  that  his  Epistle  contains  in 
relation  to  the  particular  subject  of  this  history  :  "  To 
whom  [Christ]  all  things  are  made  subject,  both  that 
are  in  heaven  and  that  are  in  earth ;  whom  every 
living  creature  shall  worship ;  who  shall  come  to 
be  the  judge  of  the  quick  and  dead ;  whose  blood 
God  shall  require  of  them  that  believe  not  in 
him."^  Alluding,  without  doubt,  to  some  of  the 
Gnostic  heretics,  he  says,  "  AYhosoever  does  not  confess 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,  he  is  antichrist. 
And  whoever  does  not  confess  his  suffering  uj)on  the 
cross,  is  from  the  devil.  And  whosoever  perverts  the 
oracles  of  the  Lord  to  his  own  lusts,  and  says  that 
there  shall  be  neither  any  resurrection,  nor  judgment, 


1  Polycarp's  Epist.,  §  5.     Wake''s  Trans. 

2  M.  Daille  and  Blondel  reject  it,  and  Mosheim  says  it  "  has  merely  a  question- 
able claim  to  credit."  But  Lardner,  on  the  contrary,  asserts  that  "  there  is  scarce 
any  doubt  or  question  among  learned  men  about  the  genuineness  of  this  Epistle 
of  Polycarp." 

3  By  some  he  is  considered  the  angel  of  the  church  in  Smyrna,  addressed  in  Rev. 
ii.  8.  This,  however,  is  doubtful,  as  it  is  probable  that  he  was  not  ordained  till 
after  the  Revelation  was  written, 

4  Polycarp's  Epist.,  §  2. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  17 

he  is  the  first-born  of  Satan."  ^  There  may  also  be  a 
question,  whether  the  author  does  not  intimate  that  the 
future  resurrection  depends  on  faith  and  obedience  in 
this  life. 2 

To  these  dates  succeeds  a  period  of  several  years, 
from  which  no  Christian  writings  have  descended  to 
us,  except  a  few  passages  that  happen  to  have  been 
quoted,  by  later  writers,  from  Papias,  Quadi-atus,  and 
Agrippa  Castor ;  of  which,  however,  we  shall  take  no 
notice,  as  they  throw  no  light  upon  our  subject.  But 
it  is  important  to  remark  that  Papias  and  Aristides 
(a  writer  of  whom  nothing  whatever  remains)  con- 
tributed, undesignedly,  to  pervert  the  simplicity  of 
Christianity;  and  that  they  serve,  at  the  same  time, 
to  exemplify  the  manner  in  which  corruptions  grew 
up  in  the  church.  The  former  who  was  bishop  at 
Hierapolis,  near  Laodicea,  is  said  to  have  devoted 
himself  to  collecting  traditions  of  the  apos- 
tolic doctrine  and  sayings ;  but  being  very 
credulous  and  of  a  weak  mind,  he  received,  with 
little  discrimination,  whatever  was  related  to  him. 
Having  thus  formed  a  collection  of  idle  tales  and 
foolish  notions,  he  published  them  to  the  world  as 
the  authoritative  instructions  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  Such  was  the  character  of  the  church, 
that  his  w^ork  appears  to  have  been  well  re- 
ceived;    and     it    certainly   met    with     considerable 

1  Ditto,  §  2  and  7. 

2  Ditto,  §  2  and  5.  If  Clemens  Komanus  and  Polycarp,  as  well  as  Ignatius,  really 
held  a  partial  resurrection,  that  of  the  saints  exclusively,  the  circumstance  would 
seem  to  prove  that  the  notion  of  the  Jews,  or  rather  of  the  Pharisees,  on  this 
point,  had  spread  pretty  extensively  in  the  church,  —  from  Asia  Minor  to  Rome, — 
at  this  early  period.  That  such  was  the  notion  of  the  Pharisees,  about  the  end  of 
the  first  century,  see  Josephus,  etc. 


18  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

credit  among  the  succeeding  fathers,  who  adopted 
some  of  its  fictions.^  But  whatever  were  the 
injurious  effects  of  these  pretended  traditions,  the 
cause  of  truth  sustained  a  much  greater  detriment 
from  the  gradual  incorporation  of  the  Grecian 
philosophy.  Aristides  was  probably  the  fii'st  pro- 
fessed philosopher  from  the  Grecian  schools,  who 
took  an  active   part  in  support  of  Chris- 

A.  D.  124-126.  .        .  -r,  T 

tiamty.  But  he  appears,  unhappily,  to 
have  clothed  it  in  the  robe  of  the  Academy ;  for 
Jerome  informs  us  that  the  Apology,  which  he 
presented  to  the  Emperor  Adrian,  in  behalf  of  the 
persecuted  Christians,  was  full  of  philosophic  notions, 
which  were  afterwards  adopted  by  Justin  Martyr.^ 
The  Grecian  philosophy  was  nearly  as  incompatible 
with  Christianity  as  was  the  Oriental ;  but  the  cor- 
ruptions it  introduced,  flom-ished  in  the  church,  after 
a  few  years,  as  in  a  congenial  soil ;  and,  in  less 
than  a  century,  gave  a  new  appearance  to  the  general 
mass  of  doctrine  considered  orthodox. 

The   Epistle  of  Barnabas  is   the   next   in    order; 

unless,    as    has   been    hitherto    conjectured, 

it   belongs    to   the   first   centmy.^      It  was 

composed  by  some  Jewish  Christian,  of  mean  abilities, 

for  the  purpose  of  representing  the  Mosaic  law  and 


1  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  Article,  Papias.  Papias  is  said  to  have  flourished 
about  A.  D.  116, 

2  Du  Pin's  BibJioth.  Pat.  Art.  Quadratus  and  Aristides,  The  Apology  of  Aris- 
tides is  supposed  to  have  been  written  about  A.  D.  124,  or  126, 

3  It  has  been  thought,  by  most  of  the  learned,  that  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  was 
written  in  the  first  century ;  and,  by  many,  that  it  was  the  work  of  that  Barnabas 
who  was  the  companion  and  fellow-traveller  of  St.  Paul.  The  latter  opinion 
Mosheim  treats  as  scarcely  worthy  of  a  refutation ;  and,  though  it  has  had  some 
eminent  advocates,  it  is  now  generally  discarded.    That  the  former  opinion  is  also 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  19 

other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  as  containing  a 
hidden  account  of  Christ  and  his  religion.  The 
allegorical  and  mystical  interpretations,  of  which 
the  Epistle  mostly  consists,  present  an  extraordinary 
instance  of  blind  stupidity  aiming  at  discoveries.^ 


incorrect,  I  cannot  but  think  sufficiently  evident  from  the  Epistle  itself.  The  au- 
thor, speaking  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  says,  ''Again,  he  [Christ]  speaketh 
after  this  manner:  Behold,  they  that  destroy  this  temple,  even  they  shall  again 
bicild  it  tip.  And  so  it  came  to  pass :  for  through  their  wars,  it  is  now  destroyed 
by  their  enemies;  and  the  servants  of  their  enemies  build  it  up."  (Barnab.Epist, 
§  16.  Wake's  Trans.)  It  will  not  be  questioned  that  the  author  here  speaks,  1,  of 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  after  our  Lord's  ministry;  that  is,  of  its  destruc- 
tion by  Titus ;  and  2,  of  attemjits  at  rebuilding  it  by  the  servants  of  the  Ro- 
mans, at  the  time  of  writing  this  Epistle.  Now,  it  is  well  known  that  there  was 
no  attempt  at  rebuilding  either  the  temple  or  the  city,  after  their  destruction  by 
Titus,  till  the  time  of  Adrian,  who,  in  A.  D.  130  or  136,  sent  a  colony  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  restore  the  city,  and  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  former  temple  to  ei-ect  a  new 
one,  which  he  afterwards  dedicated  to  Jupiter.  This  circumstance  appears  to  de- 
termine the  date  of  the  allusion  quoted  from  Barnabas ;  and  I  know  of  nothing 
that  can  be  urged  against  the  hypothesis.  Irenseus,  about  A.  D.  190,  is  the  first 
who  seems  to  have  imitated  any  of  the  expressions  of  this  Epistle ;  and  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  about  A.  D.  194,  is  the  first  who  cither  mentioned  it,  or  formally 
alluded  to  it.  It  is  but  just,  however,  to  apprize  the  reader,  that  my  hypothesis  is 
not  supported  by  the  authority  of  the  critics ;  who,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  taken 
no  notice  of  Barnabas's  allusion  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple.  Mosheim  sup- 
poses the  Epistle  to^have  been  written  in  the  first  century;  and  he  agrees  with 
Cotelerius,  Brucker,  Basnage,  and  others,  that  its  author  was  not  the  Barnabas 
who  was  the  companion'^of  St.  Paul.  Wake,  Du  Pin,  and  Lardner,  on  the  contrary, 
ascribe  it  to  that  Barnabas,  and  place  its  date  about  A.  D.  71  or  72. 

1  *'  Understand,  children,"  says  he,  ''  these  things  more  fully,  that  Abraham,  who 
was  the  first  that  brought  in  circumcision,  pei'formed  it,  after  having  received  the 
mystery  of  three  letters,  by  which  he  looked  forward  in  the  spirit,  to  Jesus.  For 
the  Scripture  says  that  Abraham  circumcised  three  hundred  and  eighteen  men  of 
his  house.  But  what,  therefore,  was  the  mystery  that  was  made  known  unto 
him  ?  Mark,  first,  the  eighteen ;  and  next,  the  three  hundred.  For  the  numeral 
letters  of  ten  and  eight  are  IH  [that  is,  the  Greek  Eta,  or  long  E,  —  IE  are  the  fixst 
two  letters  of  the  word  Jesus] .  And  these  denote  Jesus.  And  because  the  cross 
was  that  by  which  we  were  to  find  grace,  he  therefore  adds  three  hundred;  the 
numeral  letter  of  which  is  T  [the  figure  of  the  cross].  T\Tierefore,  by  two  letters 
he  signified  Jesus,  and  by  the  third,  his  cross.  He  who  has  put  the  engrafted  gift 
of  his  doctrine  within  us  knows  that  I  never  taught  to  any  a  more  certain  truth ; 
but  I  trust  that  ye  are  worthy  of  it."  —  Barnabas's  Epist.,  §  9.  Such  is  one  of  the 
important  discoveries  our  author  communicates ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the 
later  fathers,  even  those  of  undoubted  learning,  as  Justin  Martyn,  Irenaeus,  Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus,  etc.,  appear  to  have  been  by  no  means  insensible  to  the  charms 
of  this  kind  of  nonsense. 


20  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  of  all  the  Christian 
writings,  after  the  sacred  Scriptures,  this  Epistle  is  the 
first  in  which  we  find  the  word  everlasting^  or  eternal^ 
applied  to  suffering  ;  near  the  end,  Barnabas  represents 
two  ways,  that  of  light,  over  which  the  angels  of  Grod 
are  appointed,  and  that  of  darkness,  where  the  angels 
of  Satan  preside  ;  and  after  describing  the  manner  of 
walking  in  the  way  of  light,  he  says,  "But  the  way  of 
darkness  is  crooked,  and  full  of  cursing ;  for  it  is  the 
way  of  eternal  death  with  punishment,  in  which  they 
that  walk  meet  with  those  things  that  destroy  their 
own  souls."  ^  He  afterwards  adds,  that  he  who  chooses 
this  part  shall  "be  destroyed,  together  with  his  works. 
For  this  cause,  there  shall  be  both  a  resurrection  and 
a  reti*ibution."2  Throughout  his  Epistle  he  says  noth- 
ing of  universal  salvation;  and  it  appears,  from  what 
we  have  quoted,  that  he  believed  in  a  future  state  of 
punishment.  But  whether  he  thought  it  endless  can- 
not be  determined ;  since  the  word  everlasting  or  eter- 
nal was  used,  by  the  ancients,  to  denote  indefinite 
rather  than  interminable  dm-ation.^ 

The  last,  as  well  as  the  longest,  of  the  works  of  the 
Apostolical  Fathers,  so-called,  is  that  effusion 
of    second    childishness.    The    Sheijlierd    of 
Hernias.'^     It  was  wiitten  at  Eome,  by  a  brother  of 


1  Barnabas's  Epistle  {Wake's  Translation),  §§  18  and  20. 

2  Ditto,  §  21. 

3  See  instances  of  this,  in  the  next  chapter,  sects,  iii.  iv.  xi.,  and  in  succeeding 
chapters. 

4  It  had  long  been  debated,  by  the  learned,  whether  this  work  was  composed  in 
the  first  century,  by  that  Hermas  whom  St.  Paul  mentions  (Rom.  xvi.  14) ;  or  in  the 
second  century,  by  another  Hermas,  brother  to  Pius,  Bishop  of  Rome.  But  the 
question  was  finally  decided  by  a  fragment  of  a  work  of  the  second  century, 
brought  to  light  by  Aluratori :  ••  Hermas,  brother  to  Pius,  bishop  of  the  church  in  the 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  21 

the  bishop  of  that  city;  but  it  betrays  an  ignorant 
and  imbecile  mind,  in  absolute  dotage.  Its  object 
appears  to  have  been  to  excite  the  professors  of 
Christianity  to  more  uprightness,  zeal,  and  abstraction 
from  the  business  as  well  as  ordinary  pleasures  of  life  ; 
and  this  the  author  strives  to  effect  by  relating  pre- 
tended visions,  and  by  introducing  instructions  from 
an  angel,  who  occasionally  appeared  to  him,  as  he  as- 
serts, in  the  habit  of  a  shepherd.  But  the  conversa- 
tion he  attributes  to .  his  celestial  visitants  is  more 
insipid  than  we  commonly  hear  from  the  weakest  of 
men. 

Without  exti'acting  at  full  length,  as  in  the  case  of 
former  works ,  the  several  passages  which  seem  to  have 
relation  to  our  subject,  it  is  sufficient  to  observe,  that 
Hermas  has  left  nothing  to  determine  his  views  of  the 
final  extent  of  salvation,  unless  it  may  be  gathered, 
from  the  following,  that  he  totally  precludes  some  of 
the  human  race  from  all  prospect  of  bliss  :  he  teach- 
es that  a  Christian,  if  he  sin  after  his  baptism,  may 
possibly  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  one  repentance, 
and  of  one  only  ;  ^  but  that  for  such  as  apostatize  from 

city  of  Rome,"  says  this  fragment,  '*  wrote  very  lately,  in  our  own  time.  The  Shep- 
herd, at  Rome."  (See  Mosheim's  Commentaries  on  the  Affairs  of  the  Christians, 
etc.,  Eccl.  Hist,  of  the  First  Cent.,  §  liv.,  notes  n  and  o;  where  may  he  found  a  full 
discussion  of  this  point.)  The  date  of  The  Shepherd,  therefore,  cannot  he  much 
eaUer  than  A.  D.  150;  perhaps  later. 

1  Hermas,  hook  ii.,  command,  iv.,  §  3,  compared  with  hook  i.,  vis.  ii.,  §  2. 
Wake's  Trans. 

a  This  position  is  not  tenable.  The  author  of  the  fragment  is  unknown.  Even 
the  original  language  is  obscure,  and  a  matter  of  doubt.  This  opinion  only  occurs 
in  a  note  of  Muratori,  and  in  a  poem  falsely  ascribed  to  Tertullian.  It  doubtless 
belongs  to  the  time  of  Hadrian,  or  Antoninus  Pius,  —  A.  D.  117 — 138.  It  is  prob- 
ably an  early  ^fiction  ;  but  is  exceedingly  valuable  as  reflecting  the  thought  of  that 
period.  — A.  St.  J.  C. 


22  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  faith,  and  blaspheme  God,  there  is  no  return. 
They  have /or  erer  •  departed  from  God;  and,  in  the 
next  world,  they  are  to  be  bm-ned,  together  with  the 
heathen  nations.^  Strong  as  such  language  may  seem, 
those  acquainted  with  the  style  of  the  earliest  fathers, 
will  not,  perhaps,  account  it  decisive  in  favor  of  end- 
less perdition.  We  may  here  add,  that  Hermas 
supposed  that  the  apostles,  after  their  death,  went 
and  preached  to  the  souls  of  those  who  had  led  pure 
and  virtuous  lives  before  Christ's  birth  ;  and  that, 
when  those  spirits  had  thus  heard  the  gospel,  they  re- 
ceived water  baptism,  in  some  way  untold,  and  then 
entered  the  kingdom  of  God.^  He  also  held  an  opin- 
ion, common  during  the  remainder  of  this  century, 
that  the  end  of  the  world  was  near  at  hand.^ 

We  must  now  take  om^  leave,  for  a  while,  of  the  or- 
thodox believers,  and  go  back  to  an  account  of  a  very 
different  kind  of  Christians,  concerning  whom  we  have 
not  even  the  feeble  light  hitherto  enjoyed  to  guide 
our  investigations.  Xo  part  of  ecclesiastical  history 
is  involved  in  more  uncertainty  than  that  of  the 
Gnostic  heretics  of  the  first  and  second 
centuries.  Their  own  writings,  except 
a  few  unconnected  fragments,  are  wholly  lost ; 
and  the  only  way  of  attaining  to  an  acquaintance 
with  them  and  their  sentiments  is  by  comparing  the 
faulty,  and  often  al)usive,  representations  of  their 
zealous  opposers,  with  the  imperfect  knowledge  we 

1  Hermas,  book  iii.  simil.  vi.  §  2. 

2  Ditto,  book  iii.  simil.  ix.  §  16. 

3  Ditto,  book  i.,  vis.  iv.  §  3. 

The  idea  of  salvation,  after  punishment  hereafter,  seems  taught.    B.i.  vis.  iii. 
ch.  vii.   But  of  punishment  even  after  repentance.    B.  iii.  simil.  vii.  1.  —A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF   IINIVERSALISM.  23 

have  of  that  system  of  philosophy,  the  Oriental,  which 
they  amalgamated  with  Christianity. ^  That  they  be- 
lieved in  our  Saviour  as  a  messenger  from  the  supreme 
God,  and  generally  maintained  their  Christian  profes- 
sion, amidst  the  opposition  of  the  heathens,  and  the 
obloquy  of  the  orthodox,  is  certain.  But  it  is  now 
considered  equally  certain  that  they  believed,  some 
of  them,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  an  angelic  being  of  the 
highest  order,  who  came  into  om-  world  with  only  the 
visionary  appearance,  not  the  real  body,  of  a  man ;  and 
others,  that  Jesus  alone  was  a  mere  man,  with  a  hu- 
man soul,  into  whom  the  Christ,  a  high  celestial  spirit, 
descended  at  his  baptism  in  Jordan.  As  to  the  object 
of  our  Saviour's  mission,  they  are  thought  to  have  been 
perfectly  agreed,  that  it  was  not  to  satisfy  any  vin- 
dictive justice  in  Deity,  whom  they  considered  infi- 
nitely good,  but  to  deliver  mankind  from  the  oppressive 
service  of  the  degenerate  gods  of  this  world,  and  to 
teach  them  how  to  subdue  their  passions,  and  approx- 
imate the  supreme  God,  the  fountain  of  purity  and 
bliss.  From  the  long-venerated,  but  chimerical  phi- 
losophy of  the  Persians,  they  retained  the  notion,  that 
the  material  world  was  formed,  not  by  the  self-exist- 
ent, but  by  the  inferior  gods,  called  ^ons,  whose  be- 
ing was  derived  through  a  long  and  intricate  succession, 

as  most  of  them  thought,  originally  from  him.^     This 

• 

1 1,  however,  attempt  only  to  follow  our  modern  historian,  Mosheim  (Ecclesiasti- 
cal History,  and  Commentaries  on  the  Affairs  of  the  Christians,  etc.),  with  some 
help  from  Le  Clerc  (Histor.  Eccl.  duorum  primonun,  a  Christo  nato,  Sasculorum), 
from  Beausohre  (HistOire  de  Manichee,  etc.),  and  from  the  History  of  Heretics,  in 
Lardner's  Works. 

2  A  few  of  them,  perhaps,  held  two  original,  self-existent  beings,  an  evil,  as  well 
as  a  good,  deity.  Such  it  is  conjectured,  was  the  opinion  of  the  Saturninians,  about 
A.  D.  120,  and  of  the  Marcionites,  about  A.  D.  140.  This  is  denied,  however,  in 
the  History  of  Heretics,  in  Lardner's  Works,  and  also  by  Beausobre. 


24  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

led  them  to  regard  the  God  of  the  Jews,  the  Jehovah 
of  the  old  Testament,  as  but  a  secondary  bemg,  the 
principal  Maker  of  this  world ;  and  they  also  con- 
cluded that  he  had  apostatized,  more  or  less,  from  the 
divine  allca'iance,  inasmuch  as  he  had  arros^ated  to 
himself  the  honors  of  worship,  and  as  Christ  had  been 
sent  to  annul  his  ancient  covenant,  and  to  overthrow 
his  institutions.  From  the  same  philosophy  they  also 
received  the  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of  matter,  and, 
especially,  of  its  inherent,  radical  depravity.  Hence, 
they  in  general  discarded  the  hope  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  material  body,  which,  in  their  view,  would  but 
perpetuate  the  bondage  and  corruption  of  the  soul. 
"With  such  dislike  did  most  of  them  regard  the  body, 
that  they  prescribed  an  excessively  rigid  discipline,  a 
continual  abstinence,  in  order  to  thwart  all  its  inclina- 
tions, and  to  weaken,  as  far  as  possible,  its  power 
over  the  mind. 

Such  are  the  common  outlines  of  their  several  sys- 
tems, as  laid  down  by  the  more  judicious  of  modern 
historians,  who  at  the  same  time  confess  and  lament 
the  impossibility  of  arriving  at  a  satisfactory  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject.  All  the  Gnostics  were  charged, 
by  their  cotemporary  orthodox  adversaries,  with  be- 
ing abandoned  to  licentiousness  ;  a  scandal  which  the 
heathens  first  poured  forth,  with  unsparing  liberality, 
upon  the  orthodox  themselves,  and  which  these,  in 
turn,  have  as  freely  passed  over,  and  doubtless  from 
nearly  the  same  motives,  to  the  successive  orders  of 
heretics.^ 


1  The  licentiousness,  alleged  by  the  ancient  orthodox  against  the  Gnostics,  ia  in 
^rt  denied,  and  in  part  admitted,  by  Mosheim ;  uniformly  mentioned  in  terms  of 


OF    UNIYERSALISM.  25 

Some  of  the  Gnostics,  perhaps  some  of  the  earliest, 
believed  in  the  endless  exclusion  of  a  part  of  mankind 
from  the  abodes  of  celestial  light.  But,  among  those 
who  arose  in  Egypt,  there  were  many,  particularly  the 
Basilidians,  the  Carpocratians,  and  the  Yalentinians, 
who  are  supposed  to  have  held  an  eventual  restoration, 
or  rather  transmigration,  of  all  human  souls  to  a  heaven 
of  purity  and  bliss.  But  this  tenet  they  appear  to 
have  involved  in  other  notions,  wild  and  chimerical 
enough  to  warrant  the  suspicion  of  lunacy,  were  it  not 
for  the  antiquity,  prevalence,  and  reputation  of  that 
whimsical  philosophy  from  which  they  were  derived. 

The  Basilidians  and  Carpocratians, 
it  is  said,  believed  that  such  souls  as 
here  follow  the  instructions  of  our  Saviour  will, 
at  death,  ascend  immediately  to  the  happy  mansions 
above;  while,  on  the  contrary,  such  as  neglect  and 
disobey,  will  be  condemned  to  pass  into  other  bodies, 
either  o*f*men  or  of  brutes,  until  b}^  their  purification 
they  shall  be  fitted  to  share  the  joys  of  the  incorporeal 
blest ;  and  so,  all  will  finally  be  saved. 

uncertainty  by  Le  Clerc;  and  wholly  denied  by  Beausobre;  as  it  likewise  is,  in 
the  History  of  Heretics,  in  Lardner's  Works.  The  following  remark  deserves 
more  consideration  than,  I  fear,  most  readers  wiU  allow  it :  '*  This  is  certain,  that 
as  bad  things  were  said  of  the  primitive  Christians  as  were  ever  said  of  the  ancient 
heretics  by  the  Catholics  [Orthodox].  Modern  Refonners  have  been  treated  just 
in  the  same  manner.  (Hist,  of  Heretics,  book  i.  sect.  8,  Lardner's  Works.)  Look 
Into  Roman  Catholic  writings,  and  see  all  kinds  of  immoral  tenets  attributed  to 
Luther,  Calvin,  and  their  associates;  turn  to  the  Protestant  side,  and  see  the  charge 
retorted  with,  at  least,  equal  exaggeration;  hear  the  mutual  criminations  of 
our  modern  sects,  who  accuse  each  other  of  j)rincij)les  of  conduct  which  they  never 
thought  of ;  — and  then  judge  how  much  credit  should  be  given  to  ancient  calum- 
nies of  the  same  sort!  It  is  a  curious  circumstance,  that  Mosheun,  honored  and 
admired,  and  standing  on  high  ground  in  a  national  church,  had  never,  himself, 
encountered  the  slander  of  bigotry ;  while  Le  Clerc,  an  odious  Arminian  from  Ge- 
neva, and  Beausobre,  a  Protestant  refugee  from  France,  had  ample  experience  of 
its  malignity  and  falsehood.  The  Unitarian  Lardner,  was,  in  his  own  country,  a 
heretic  of  the  most  obnoxious  kind." 


26  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

The  Basiliclians  were  the  followers  of  Basilides,  a 
Gnostic  Christian  and  Egyptian  philosopher,  who 
flourished,  at  Alexandria,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
second  century,  and  died  there  between  the  years  130 
and  140.  Though  he  believed  in  one  self-existent, 
supreme,  and  infinitely  glorious  God,  yet  he  also  held 
that  depraved  matter  had  been,  in  one  state  or  another, 
coeval  with  him.  In  the  past  ages  of  eternity,  the 
Deity  produced  from  himself  certain  ^ons,  who,  in 
their  turn,  begat  others,  but  of  a  rank  somewhat 
inferior,  and  of  a  lower  station ;  and  from  these  again 
proceeded  a  species  still  less  exalted ;  and  so  on,  in 
succession,  till  the  celestial  hierarchy  extended  from 
the  highest  heaven  down  to  the  vicinity  of  chaotic 
matter.  The  lowest  race  of  ^ons,  whose  station 
was  the  nethermost  heaven,  undertook,  at  length,  to 
reduce  the  immense  material  mass  below  them  from 
its  pristine  state  of  disorder;  and  having  formed  it 
into  a  world,  and  made  man  with  a  body  and  a 
material  soul,  the  Deity,  approving  their  work,  gave 
the  creature  a  rational  mind,  and  thus  completed  the 
undertaking.  He  then  allowed  these  ^ons  to  divide, 
among  themselves,  the  government  of  the  world  they 
had  formed.  But  they,  swerving  by  degrees  from 
their  allegiance,  arrogated  at  length  divine  honors 
from  their  creatures,  grew  ambitious  of  enlarging, 
each  one,  his  dominion  over  the  territory  of  the  others, 
and  for  this  purpose  embroiled  mankind  in  mutual 
wars,  till  the  world  became  full  of  wretchedness  and 
crime.  Touched  with  compassion  for  the  human  race, 
God  sent  his  Son,  the  first-begotten  and  noblest  of  nil 
the  ^ons,  to  take  up  his  abode  in  the  man  Jesus ; 


OF    UXIVERSALISM.  27 

and  through  him  to  prochiim  the  supreme,  but  for- 
gotten, Deit}^  teach  mankmcl  to  abjure  the  authority 
of  their  tyrannical  gods,  especially  of  the  God  of  the 
Jews  ;  and  to  instruct  them  how  to  subdue  their  own 
sinful  propensities,  by  mortifying  their  bodies,  as 
well  as  by  governing  their  passions.  The  God  of  the 
Jews,  alarmed  for  his  dominion,  excited  the  people 
to  apprehend  and  crucify  Jesus ;  but  the  Christ,  the 
celestial  ^on,  had  left  his  mortal  associate,  before 
the  suffering  man  was  nailed  to  the  cross. 

Basilides  taught  that  God  is  perfectly  good,  or  be- 
nevolent, in  the  real  sense  of  those  words ;  but  that 
he  inflicts  the  proper  punishment  for  every  wilful 
transgression,  whether  of  saint  or  sinner.  Reforma- 
tion and  improvement  are  the  grand  objects,  as  he 
appears  to  have  held,  of  all  punishment,  and  of  all 
God's  dealings  with  mankind.  Though  he  treated  the 
Old  Testament  with  respect,  as  the  revelation  of  that 
dignified  Being  who  governed  the  Jews,  he  did  not 
think  it  inspired  by  the  supreme  God ;  and  he  is 
accused  of  having  also  rejected  some  parts  of  the  New 
Testament ;  which,  though  possibly  a  fact,^  cannot  be 
satisfactorily  proved.  He  wrote  a  Qommentary ^  in 
twenty-four  books,  on  the  Gospels,  which  was  soon 
answered  by  Agi'ippa  Castor,  a  cotemporary  ortho- 
dox writer. 

Basilides  is  thought  to  have  been  a  grave  and  pious 
man,  but  bewildered  by  the  fabulous  theology  of  the 
East.  He  had  a  son,  named  Isidore,  who  wrote  some 
books,  long  since  lost,  in  illustration  of  their  religious 

1  Mosheim  thinks  it  credible;  Beausobre  sees  no  proof  of  it;  and  in  the  Historj 
of  Heretics,  in  Lardner,  it  is  disputed.  Le  Clerc  says  nothing  about  it. 


4 


28  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

sentiments.  His  sect,  though  often  assailed,  and  con- 
stantly opposed,  both  b}^  the  orthodox  and  the 
heathens,  was  for  a  long  time  numerous,  chiefly  in 
Egypt  and  Asia.  After  having  continued  about  two 
hundred  years,  we  find  it  broken  and  decreased  in  the 
fourth  century ;  and  not  long  afterwards  it  probably 
became  extinct,  or  perhaps  coalesced  with  that  of  the 
Manicheans.^ 

The  Carpocratians,  who  arose  at  the  same  place 
with  the  Basilidians,  and  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
agreed  with  them  in  the  final  salvation  of  all  souls, 
and  did  not  gi-eatly  differ  from  them  in  the  general 
system  of  their  doctrine.  Like  them,  they  clis- 
tinsruished  between  the  Deitv  and  the  inferior  ^ons 
who  formed  the  world ;  like  them  they  believed  that 
matter  had  existed  from  eternity,  and  was  unalterably 
corrupt.  They,  indeed,  aiTanged  the  JEons  in  a  little 
different  order  ;  and  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that 
they  considered  our  Sa^dour  not  a  twofold  beings 
human  and  angelic,  but  a  mere  man,  though  of  more 
than  ordinary  wisdom  and  divine  intelligence.  He 
was  appointed  by  Deit}^  to  teach  mankind  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  God,  and  to  abolish  the  dominion  of 
the  arrogant  makers  of  the  world. 

This  sect,  which  seems  never  to  have  been  large, 
spread  chiefly  in  Egypt  and  the  adjoining  parts  of 
Asia ;  and  disappeared,  probably,  in  little  more  than 
a  century  after  its  rise,  if  indeed  it  ii^ad  ever  been 
altogether  distinct  from  that  of  the  Basilidians,  Its 
founder  was   Carpocrates,  a  learned   Pgyptian^   who 

1  As  to  the  time  Aiwi  cause  of  the  disappearance  of  the  Gnostic  sects,  Bee  ^u*;» 
dock's  Moshedm,  vol.  1,  p.  233,  note. 


or  UXIVERSALISM.  29 

flourished  at  Alexandria,  about  the  year  130.  His 
son  Epiphanes,  Tvas  a  youth  of  vast  attainments  and 
extraordinary  promise ;  but  he  died  (about  a.  d. 
140)  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen,  after  having  written 
several  treatises  on  religious  subjects. 

Their  ancient  opponents  accuse  the  Carpocratians  of 
avowing  the  most  infamous  principles  of  moral  con- 
duct, and  even  of  teaching  that,  to  arrive  at  heaven, 
we  must  devote  ourselves  to  the  perpetration  of  every 
vile  and  licentious  abomination  :  a  calumny  which,  by 
its  manifest  exaggeration  and  malice,  reflects  only  on 
its  authors.  Some  of  the  learned  allow  no  credit  what- 
ever to  any  of  the  disadvantageous  representations  of 
their  moral  character ;  while  others  refuse  to  exculpate 
them  entirely,  at  the  consequent  expense  of  their  or- 
thodox slanders.^ 

A  sect^of  Gnostics,  still  more  whimsical  than  either 
of  the  precedins^,  was'  the  Yalentinians. 

.  .  About  A.  D.  130. 

Man,  m  theu^  view,  was  a  complex  being, 
,  consisting,  1,  of  the  outward  visible  body ;  2,  of  an- 
other body  ^within  this,  composed  of  fluid  matter,  and 
imperceptible  to  the  senses;  3,  of  an  animated  soul, 
the  seat  of  life  and  sensation  only  ;  and  4,  of  a  nobler, 
rational  soul,  of  an  angelic  substance.  The  bodies, 
both  outward  and  internal,  were,  they  held,  destined 
to  perish;  of  the  two  souls,  the  animal  or  sensitive 

1  Among  the  licentious  tenents  charged  on  the  Carpocratians,  some  of  the  most 
moderate  and  judicious  of  the  moderns  consider  that  of  the  community  of  women, 
as  well  as  of  goods,  justly  imputed  to  them.  But  in  the  Hist,  of  Heretics,  in  Lard- 
ner  (book  ii.  ch.  iii.  §  11).  this  charge  is,  I  think,  fairly  shown  to  rest  on  very  un- 
certain authority,  and  to  be,  in  itself,  quite  improbable.  Mosheim,  in  his  Com- 
mentaries, etc..  has  softened  the  features  of  the  picture  which  he  had  drawn  of  the 
Carpocratians,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Historj^. 

2  At  least,  so  asserts  Mosheim,  confidently ;  from  whom,  therefore,  I  dare  not 
wander,  though,  in  this  particular,  I  follow  him  with  much  doubt. 


30  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

could  be  saved  by  its  obedience,  or  by  its  negligence 
bring  upon  itself  entire  dissolution  at  death ;  but  the 
rational,  intelligent  soul  will,  in  all  cases,  be  admitted 
to  the  realms  of  bliss. 

In  the  immediate  habitation  of  Deity,  a  world  of 
pure  light,  infinitely  above  the  visible  heavens,  the 
Yalentinians  placed  thirty  ^ons,  divided  into  three 
orders.  These  were  guarded  by  Horns,  stationed  on 
the  extreme  verge  of  the  high  abode,  to  prevent  them 
from  wanderinsr  off  into  the  immense  res^ions  of  chaotic 
matter,  which  lay  around.  The  ^Eons,  in  process  of 
time,  grew  envious  of  the  distinguished  and  peculiar 
felicity  enjoyed  by  the  first  and  highest  individual 
of  their  number,  who  alone  was  adequate  to  compre- 
hend the  supreme  Father's  greatness.  The  ardent 
desire  to  attain  the  same  divine  pleasure  grew 
stronger  and  stronger  among  them ;  until  wisdom, 
the  youngest  and  weakest  of  all,  became  excessively 
agitated.  From  her  ungovernable  perturbations  sprang 
a  daughter,  who  was  immediately  expelled  into  the 
vast  abyss  of  rude  and  unformed  matter  without.  To 
allay  the  agitation  thus  raised  in  the  celestial  realm, 
the  Deity  produced  two  new  tEous,  who  instructed 
the  others  to  be  content  with  their  limited  capacity, 
and  to  unite  all  their  powers  in  giving  existence  to  a 
being  called  Jesus,  the  noblest  and  brightest  of  all 
the  ^ons. 

Scarcely  was  the  tranquillity  of  the  heavenly  world 
thus  restored,  when  the  most  violent  commotions 
began  to  agitate  the  drear  abyss  without.  The  exiled 
daughter  of  Wisdom  had  caught  some  glimpses  of  the 
eternal  radiance,  and  attempted  to  reach  the  glorious 


OF  UNIVEKSALISM.  31 

abode ;  "but  being  continually  repulsed  by  its  watcli- 
ful  guardian,  her  passions  of  grief,  anxiety,  and  desire 
grew  so  violent,  that  the  chaotic  mass  of  matter,  in 
which  she  was  immersed,  caught  the  strong  contagious 
emotions,  and  became  thereby  separated  into  the 
difierent  elements  which  exist  in  our  world.  By  the 
assistance  of  Jesus,  she  formed  a  being  who  is  the 
Maker  and  Governor  of  the  material  system.  This 
Creator,  having  afterwards,  with  the  same  assistance, 
constructed  the  visible  Universe,  took  up  his  abode  in 
the  lowest  heaven,  far  from  the  refulgent  habitation 
of  the  Deity  ;  and  here  his  vanity  at  length  transported 
him  to  fancy  himself  the  only  true  God,  and  to  call 
upon  mankind  by  his  prophets,  especially  by  those  he 
sent  to  the  Jews,  to  worship  him  as  such.  To  extri- 
cate mankind  from  this  delusion,  to  reveal  the  Deity 
to  them,  to  teach  them  piety  and  virtue,  was  Christ, 
one  of  the  ^ons,  sent  into  the  world.  He  had  a  real 
body,  but  unlike  those  of  mortals,  since  it  was  com- 
posed of  an  ethereal  substance ;  and  when  he  was 
baptized  in  Jordan,  Jesus  himself,  in  the  form  of  a 
dove,  descended  into  him.  Thus  completely  con- 
stituted, our  Saviour  proceeded,  by  means  of  instruc- 
tions and  miracles,  to  fulfil  his  ministry.  The  Maker 
of  the  world  was  enraged  by  his  success,  and  procured 
his  apprehension  and  crucifixion ;  but  not  till  both 
Jesus  and  the  spiritual,  rational  soul  of  Christ  had 
ascended,  leaving  nothing  but  the  sensitive  soul  and 
the  ethereal  body  to  sufler.  Like  other  Gnostics,  the 
Valentinians  denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and 
thought  the  authors  of  the  Old  Testament  to  have 


32  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

been  under  the  inspiration  of  the  ^laker  of  this 
world. 

This  sect  sprung  from  Valentine,  an  Eg}^3tian,  who, 
after  propagating  his  notions,  for  a  while,  in  his  native 
country,  went,  about  a.  d.  140,  to  Rome.  Here,  so 
many  professors  embraced  his  views,  that  the  church 
became  alarmed,  and,  after  thrice  excommifiiicating 
him,  succeeded  in  rendering  his  residence  in  Italy  so 
uncomfortable  that  he  withdrew  to  the  island  of  Cy- 
prus. In  this  delightful  and  luxurious  region,  his  sect 
flourished  in  quiet ;  and  after  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred a  little  subsequent,  perhaps,  to  a.  d.  150,  it 
was  widely  diffused  thi'oughout  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Europe,  and  excited  considerable  fear  in  the  orthodox 
churches.  It  existed  about  a  century  and  a  half; 
when  it  seems  to  have  sunk  gradually  into  oblivion. 
Many  of  its  sentiments,  however,  were  then  revived 
among  the  Manicheans,  whom  we  shall  consider  in 
their  proper  place. 

In  closing  our  account  of  these  Gnostic  sects,  it  is 
important  to  remark,  that  while  the  orthodox  fathers 
warmly  and  bitterly  attacked  their  respective  s^^stems 
at  large,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  ever  selected  the 
particular  tenet  of  the  salvation  of  all  souls  as  obnox- 
ious. "What  chiefly  excited  their  resentment  and  ani- 
madversions was  the  distinction  between  Deity  and 
the  jNIaker  of  the  world,  the  fables  of  the  ^ons,  the 
views  of  our  Saviour's  person,  the  rejection  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  denial  of  the  resurrection  and  of 
a  futui-e  judgment. 


OF  UNI  VERS  ALISM.  33 


CHAPTER    II. 

FROM  A.  D.   150  TO  A.  D.    190. 

It  has  been  seen  that  heresies  had  multiplied  to  such 
a  number,  and  spread  to  such  an  extent,  as 
to  become  troublesome^  to  the  regular  and 
approved  churches,  and  that  several  sects  had  estab- 
lished separate  communities,  in  distinction  from  the 
common  body.  Most  of  these  were  of  the  Gnostic 
kind,  already  described ;  but  there  vras  one  which, 
though  small,  deserves  particular  mention,  as  consist- 
ing of  that  part  of  the  original  church  at  Jerusalem 
which  continued  to  adhere,  with  unyielding  tenacity, 
to  the  practice  of  the  Mosaic  rituals.  This  was  the 
Nazarene,  or  Ebionite  sect,  which  is  said  to  have  held 
the  simple  humanity  of  Jesus  Christ. 

But  from  the  heretics,  of  all  kinds,  we  return  to  a 
view  of  the  doctrine  and  character  of  the  orthodox. 
JNIany  of  the  vulgar  superstitions  of  the  Gentiles  pre- 
vailed among  them,  concerning  magic,  the  demons, 
and  the  poetical  regions  of  the  infernal"  world  ;  and  the 
Greek  philosophy,  which  had  begun  to  mingle  with 
the  doctrine  of  Christ,  was  rapidly  modifying  his  re- 
ligion to  its  own  genius.  The  credulity  of  this  age 
was  rank,  and  the  learning  of  the  day,  at  least  that  of 

1  This  is  also  evident  from  the  circumstance  that  Agrippa  Castor  wrote  a  hook 
against  the  heretics  some  years  before  this  period,  and  Justin  Martyr  a  little  after. 


34  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  fathers,  was  too  superficial  to  prove  either  a  pre- 
ventive or  remedy.  Apostolical  tradition  also  began 
to  be  urged  as  a  proof,  when  it  was  so  far  lost  or  cor- 
rupted that  even  they  who  had  been  disciples  of  the 
apostles  adduced  contrary  traditions  on  one  and  the 
same  point ;  ^  and  yet  upon  this  very  precarious  au- 
thority some  whimsical  notions  ^  prevailed.  To  these 
shades  in  the  picture  we  must  add  a  still  darker  ;  the 
Christians,  orthodox  as  well  as  heretics,  appear  to  have 
employed,  in  some  cases,  known  falsehood  in  support 
of  their  cause.  This  pernicious  artifice  they  are  said 
to  have  derived  from  the  Platonic  paradox,  that  it  is 
lairful  to  lie  for  the  truth;  but  one  would  sujDpose  it 
to  have  been  suggested  by  their  own  intemperate  zeal, 
rather  than  by  any  maxims  of  philosophy.  They  had 
already  begun  to  forge  books  in  support  of  their  relig- 
ion, a  practice  which,  it  is  thought,  they  borrowed 
from  the  heretics  ;  and  they  now  proceeded  to  propa- 
gate accounts  of  frequent  mu^acles,  concerning  which 
all  the  early  writers,  after  the  apostles,  had  been  en- 
tirely silent. 

In  the  works  which  we  have  hitherto  had  under 
examination  we  can  discover  little  that  belongs  to  the 
Grecian  literature,  except  the  language.  All  their 
fanciful  conceits,  all  their  extravagancies,  are  either  of 
that  peculiar  character  which  denotes  a  Jewish,  at 
least  Asiatic,  origin ;  or  else  are  the  natural  effusions 


1  For  instance,  Polycarp  visited  Anicetus,  Bisliop  at  Rome,  about  A.  D.  150,  and 
held  an  amicable  discussion  with  him  on  the  proper  time  for  holding  Easter.  Each, 
according  to  Euscbius  (Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  24),  alleged  apostolical  tradition  for 
his  own  time,  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  other;  and  they  parted,  but  in  friend- 
ship, without  coming  to  an  agreement  on  the  point. 

'■^  The  doctrine  of  the  proper  Millennarians,  for  instance. 


OF   UXIVERSALISM.  35 

of  a  stupidity  that  needs  not  the  aggravation  of  false 
learning  to  become  ridiculous.  But  when  we  pass  the 
Shepherd  of  Hermas,  we  enter  immediately  on  a  new 
series  of  ecclesiastical  writings,  in  most  of  which  the 
learning  of  the  Athenian  and  Roman  schools  is  di- 
vested of  its  elegance,  and  converted  into  Christianity. 
This,  however,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  exemplify, 
in  detail,  as  we  pursue  the  course  of  our  examination. 

The  works  which  have  descended  to  us  from  the 
period  embraced  in  this  chapter,  and  which  succeed 
those  of  the  Apostolical  fathers,  are  The  Sibylline 
Oracles,  The  Writings  of  Justin  Martyr,  A  Relation 
of  the  Martyrdom  of  Poly  carp,  The  Oration  of  Ta- 
tian,  The  Letter  of  the  Churches  of  Lyons  and 
Vienne,  Two  Productions  of  Athena  gov  as,  A  Treatise 
of  Theophilus,  and  The  Works  of  Irenmus.^  Through 
these,  successively,  we  shall  now  attempt  to  follow  the 
traces  of  our  general  subject. 

It  will  be  difficult  to  give  the  reader  a  just  notion  of 
the   first   work.    The    Sibylline     Oracles, 
They  were  forged^  by  some  Christian,  or 
Christians,  generally  supposed  orthodox,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  convincing  the  heathens  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 

1  The  book  of  one  Rermas,  in  ridicule  of  the  heathen  philosophers,  though  often 
mentioned  among  the  ecclesiastical  works  of  this  period,  is,  by  all,  acknowledged 
to  be  of  uncertain  date,  and  by  the  best  critics  considered  the  production  of  a 
later  age. 

2  Cave  thinks  the  larger  part  of  them  composed  about  A.  D.  130,  and  the  rest 
before  A.  d.  192.  Du  Pin  places  them  at  about  A.  D.  160.  Lardner  thinks  they 
may  have  been  completed  before  A.  D.  169,  though  possibly  not  till  A.  D.  190.  Jus- 
tin Martyr  repeatedly  refers  to  them;  and  Hermas  probably  alluded  to  them  in 
book  1.  vis.  n.a 

a  The  original  Sibylline  Oracles  (Pagan)  -were  destroyed  B.  c.  74.  Very  soon, 
however,  new  ones  were  collected;  and  from  these,  with  perhaps  also  some  of 
Jewish  origin  (Josephus,  Antiq.  1,  4,  3,  of  Orac.  Sibyll.  Ill :  35),  the  Christian 


36  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

tianity.  The  Sibyls  were  regarded  as  very  ancient 
prophetesses,  —  of  extraordiuai;y  inspiration  among 
the  Eomans  and  the  Greeks  ;  but  their  books,  if,  in- 
deed, they  ever  existed,  had  always  been  carefully 
concealed  from  the  public,  and  consulted  only  upon 
emergencies,  and  by  order  of  the  government.  The 
great  veneration  in  which  these  supposed,  but  un- 
known, prophecies  were  held  among  the  vulgar,  in- 
duced some  zealots  to  fabricate,  under  the  name  of  the 
Sibyls,  and  in  the  form  of  ancient  predictions,  a  nar- 
rative of  the  most  striking  events  in  sacred  history, 
and  a  delineation  of  what  was  then  considered  the 
Christian  faith.     This  work,  which  we  now  have  with 

Sibyllines  were  formed.  They  have  been  variouslj'  attributed  to  Montanus,  to 
Christiana  of  Alexandria,  to  the  Gnostics,  and  even  to  Tertulliau ;  and  have  also 
been  deemed  the  productions  of  different  ages,  — by  some  as  reaching  from  about 
B.  c.  200  (in  some  of  their  materials)  to  A.  D.  500,  Much  of  this  is  mere  con- 
jecture. They  are  certainly  of  very  early  origin,  and  have  been  generally  accred- 
ited to  the  second  centary,  to  which  an  important  portion  undoubtedly  belongs. 
They  were  used,  not  only  by  Justin  Martyr,  but  by  Theophilus  of  Antioch, 
Athenagoras,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Origen,  Augustine,  Eusebius,  etc.  Opso- 
pceus,  in  his  notes,  p.  27,  says  the  Oracles  teach  '"that  the  wicked,  suffering  in 
hell  (Gehenna),  after  a  certain  period,  and  through  expiations  of  griefs,  would  be 
released  from  punishments,  which  was  the  opinion  of  Origen,"  etc.  Opsop. 
Paris,  1599. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  well  to  state  that  there  is  a  general  agreement  among  the 
learned  to  the  fact  that  these  Oracles  do  teach  Universalism.  There  is  an  inter- 
esting note  upon  this  point  in  the  Universalist  Quarterly,  for  July,  1868,  written, 
by  an  acknowledged  scholar.  Dr.  T.  B.  Thayer.  The  learned  Musardus,  In  His- 
toria  Deorum  Fatidicorum,  etc.,  Colonise  AUobrogium,  1675,  p.  184,  referred  to 
by  Dr.  Thayer,  affirms  that  the  author  of  the  Oracles  says  "  that  the  damned 
shall  be  liberated  after  they  shall  have  endured  infernal  punishments  for  many 
ages,"  "which  was  an  error  of  Origen."  Bicit  danmatos  liberandos  postquam 
pcunas  infernaUa  per  aliquot  secida  erunt  perpessi,  qui  Origenis  fuit  error.  So 
Davis,  in  his  translation  from  the  French  of  Blondel's  Treatise  of  the  Sibyls,  etc., 
London,  1661,  evidently  takes  the  same  view,  though  turning  the  passage  referred 
to  as  implying  that  God  gives  men  the  power  to  save  themselves.  Dr.  Thayer 
also  well  notices,  that  in  the  Latin  Translation  of  the  Oracles  by  Castalio  (which 
is  bound  with  the  Greek  of  our  edition),  avdpiLiroi^  is  rendered  homines  in  the  pas- 
sage quoted  by  Dr.  Ballou.  The  Latin  of  Gallaeus,  1688,  Amsterdam,  has  homines. 
In  his  Dissertationes,  c.  xxiii.,he  argues  against  Universalism,  as  taught  by  the 
Sibyls  and  Origen.  — A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  37 

some  rariations,^  in  eight  bool^s  of  coarse  Greek 
verses,  was  then  sent  into  the  world,  to  convert  the 
heathens  by  the  pretended  testimony  of  their  own 
prophetesses.  It  appears  to  have  been  seized  with 
avidity  by  the  orthodox  Christians  in  general ;  and  all 
their  principal  wiiters^  quoted  it  as  genuine,  and 
urged  its  testimonies  as  indubitable  evidence.  It  is 
mortifying  to  relate  that  not  one  of  them  had  the 
honesty  to  discard  the  fraud,  even  when  it  was  de- 
tected by  their  heathen  opponents. 

These  books,  though  brought  forth  in  iniquity,  serve 
to  show  what  sentiments  existed  among  the  Christians  ; 
which  is,  indeed,  about  all  the  .utility  of  the  genuine 
productions  of  this  period.  They  contain  the  earliest 
explicit  declaration  extant  of  a  restoration  from  the 
torments  of  hell.  Having  predicted  the  burning  of 
the  universe,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  scene 
before  the  eternal  judgment-seat,  and  the  condemna- 
tion and  horrible  torments  of  the  damned  in  the  flames 
of  hell,  the  writer  proceeds  to  expatiate  on  the  bliss 
and  the  privileges  of  the  saved ;  and  he  concludes  his 
account  by  saying  that,  after  the  general  judgment, 
"the  omnipotent,  incorruptible  God  shall  confer  an- 
other favor  on  his  worshippers,  when  they  shall  ask 
him :  he  shall  save  mankind  from  the  pernicious  fire 

1  So  think  Fabricius,  Du  Pin,  Le  Clerc,  Lardner,  and  Jortin.  Others  speak  of 
these  now  extant  as  wholly  the  same  with  the  ancient.  Paley,  who  by  calling 
them  Latin  verses,  betrays  his  ignorance  of  them,  supposes  they  cannot  be  that 
ancient  work,  because  such  is  the  manifestness  of  their  forgery  that  these  could 
not  have  deceived  the  early  fathers  into  a  belief  of  their  genuineness.  (Evidences 
of  Christianity,  part  i.,  chap,  ix,  sect,  xi.)  Cut  all  this  he  might  have  said,  with 
equal  propriety,  of  the  very  passages  which  they  actually  quoted.  They  were 
probably  aware  of  the  forgery. 

2  Justin  Martyr,  Athenagoras,  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
and  the  succeeding  fathers. 


38  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

and  immortal  agonies.  This  will  he  clo.  For,  hav- 
ing gathered  them,  safely  secured  from  the  miwearied 
flame,  and  appointed  them  to  another  place,  he  shall 
send  them,  for  his  people's  sake,  into  another  and  an 
eternal  life,  with  the  immortals  on  the  Elysian  plain, 
where  flow  perpetually  the  long,  dark  waves  of  the 
deep  sea  of  Acheron."  ^ 

This  work  is  full  of  the  fables  of  the  Greeks  con- 
cerning demons,  the  Titans  or  giants,  and  the  in- 
fernal regions.  The  world  was  to  be  burned  about 
the  end  of  the  second  century ;  and  then  all  mankind 
were  to  be  brought  forth  from  the  secret  receptacle  of 
the  dead  to  judgment ;  when  the  vicious  and  abomi- 
nable should  be  condemned  to  an  intense  fiery  torment, 
repeatedly  called  everlasting,  and  described  nearly  in 
the  language  of  the  heathen  poets,  and  with  many  of 
the  circumstances  they  emplo3^ed.  The  righteous,  on 
the  contrary,  were  to  be  received  into  a  heaven  too 
nearly  resembling  the  Elysian  fields  ;  ^  and  finally,  at 
their  request,  the  damned  were  to  be  admitted  to  the 
like  happiness.^ 

l-Sibyll.  Oracular,  lib.  ii  p.  212,  edit.  Opsopoei,  Paris,  1667. 

2  All  these  particulars  may  be  found  in  lib.  ii. 

3  The  following  prophecy  of  the  final  conflagration  may  amuse,  as  a  specimen 
of  the  author's  descriptions:  Elijah,  ''the  Thesbite,  shall  descend  from  heaven, 
drawn  in  a  celestial  car,  and  show  the  whole  world  the  three  signs  of  the 
destruction  of  all  life.  Woe  unto  them  whom  that  day  shall  overtake  oppressed 
with  the  burden  of  the  womb ;  woe  unto  them  who  shall  nurse  children  at  the 
breast,  and  unto  those  who  shall  dwell  near  the  waters.  Woe  unto  them  who 
shall  see  that  day;  for  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,  and  from  the 
north  to  the  south,  the  Avholo  world  shall  be  involved  in  the  gloom  of  hideous 
night.  A  burning  river  of  fire  shall  then  flow  from  the  lofty  heavens,  and  utterly 
consume  the  earth,  the  vast  ocean  with  its  cerulean  abyss,  the  lakes,  rivers, 
fountains,  the  horrible  realm  of  Pluto,  and  the  celestial  pole.  The  stars  in  heaven 
shall  melt  and  drop  down  without  form.  All  mankind  shall  gnash  their  teeth, 
encompassed  on  every  hand  with  a  flood  of  fire,  and  covered  with  burning  cinders. 
The  elements  of  the  world  shall  lie  forsaken :  the  air,  the  earth,  the  heavens,  the 
sea,  the  Ught,  and  nights  and  days  be  confounded." —  Lib.  ii.,  p.  201, 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  39 

We  proceed  to  the  writings  of  the  renowned  Justin 
Martyr,  the  first  professed  scholar  of  the 

•^     '  ^  .  ,A.  D,  150  to  162. 

Grecian  philosophy,  whose  productions 
in  favor  of  the  Christian  religion  have  reached  us.  He 
was  a  native  of  Neapolis,  the  ancient  Sichem,  in  Pal- 
estine. Having  sought,  as  he  says,  for  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,  among  all  the  sects  of  heathen  phi- 
losophers, he  was  at  length  converted  to  Christianity 
by  the  conversation  of  an  old  man ;  but  he  never  laid 
aside  the  peculiar  habit  nor  the  profession  of  the 
Platonists.  He  engaged,  however,  with  gi'eat  zeal 
and  boldness  in  the  Christian  cause,  for  which  he 
wrote  two  Apologies:  one,  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
Antoninus  Pius,  about  a.d.  150,  and  the  other  about  a.d. 
162,  to  the  succeeding  emperor,  Marcus  Antoninus, 
and  to  the  Senate  and  People  of  Rome.^  It  was  in 
this  city,  where  he  had  resided  for  many  years,  that 
he  sealed  his  testimony  by  martyrdom,  about  a.  d.  166. 
His  profession  of  philosophy,  his  extensive  though 
cursory  reading,  together  with  his  zeal  and  piety,  se- 
cured him  a  great  reputation  and  influence  among  the 
early  fathers,  who  lacked  the  discernment  to  perceive 
his  want  of  sober  judgment,  and  to  discover  the  fre- 
quent mistakes  into  which  his  carelessness  and  gi'oss 
credulity  betrayed  him.  His  early  heathen  notions, 
so  far  from  being  dispelled  by  the  light  of  truth,  were 
only  modified  to  his  new  religion,  and  the  more  fondly 


1  Cave,  Pagi,  Basnage,  and  Le  Clerc  date  Justin's  First  Apology  at  about  A.  D. 
140;  Massuet,  145;  The  Benedictine  Editors  and  Tillemont,  Grabe,  Du  Pin,  and 
Lardner,  at  150.  The  Dialogue  with  TrjiDho  was  writteji  certainly  after  the  First 
Apology,  but  perhaps  before  the  Second,  which  is  generally  placed  at  the  year 
162.  Besides  these  three  works,  some  attribute  to  him  Two  Orations  to  the 
Greeks,  and  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus. 


40  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

cherished,  as  they  now  formed  part  of  a  system  he 
deemed  sacred.  Augels,  he  supposes,  once  descended 
to  the  earth,  became  enamored  of  women,  and  in 
their  embraces  begat  the  demons.  These  demons, 
learning  from  the  prophets  the  principal  events  in 
Christ's  life  and  administration,  fabricated,  in  order  to 
imitate  them,  the  stories  of  the  heathen  m^i^hology. 
They  first  instituted  idolatry,  and  they  still  continue 
to  allure  men  to  practise  it,  by  the  mysterious  tricks 
they  perform  for  the  purpose;  and  all  this,  out  of  a 
desire  to  feed  on  the  fumes  of  the  sacrifices  and  liba- 
tions.^ Nothing  can  be  more  wonderful  than  the  va- 
ried part  which  the  demons  perform  in  this  world,  ac- 
cording to  Justin's  representations.  They  labored, 
however,  under  one  essential  disadvantage ;  for  our 
author  assures  us,  that  the  Christians,  in  his  time,  had 
the  miraculous  gift  of  exorcising  them  at  pleasure, 
whatever  shape  they  assumed,  or  wherever  they  con- 
cealed themselves.^  The  reader  cannot  be  surprised 
that  Justin  applied  and  explained  Scripture  without 
the  least  regard  to  rational  interpretation. 

His  opinion  concerning  the  future  state  of  mankind 
was,  that  all  souls,  after  death,  are  reserved  in  a  cer- 
tain place,  probably  the  Infermim  of  the  Latins,  till 
the  general  resurrection  and  judgment;  when  the 
righteous,  whether  Christians  or  virtuous  heathens, 
such  as  Socrates  and  Plato,  shall  reign  with  Christ  a 
thousand  ^xars  upon  the  earth,  and  then  be  admitted 
to  the  celestial  mansions ;  ^  while  the  wicked  shall  be 

1  Justini.  Apolog.  Pi-im.,  p.  61,  edit.  Paris. 

2  Apol.  Secund.,  p.  45,  axid passim. 

3  Compare  Dialog,  cum.  Tryph.  p.  223, 306,  Apol.  i.,  p.  71;  Apol.  ii.,p.  83,  etc.,  edit. 
Paris,  1742. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  41 

condemned  to  a  punishment  which  he  frequently  calls- 
everlasting .^  In  another  place,  however,  he  states 
his  opinion  upon  this  last  point  more  particularly,  and 
intimates  that  the  wicked  will  be,  eventually,  annihi- 
lated:  "Souls,"  says  he,  "are  not  immortal  . 
I  do  not  say  that  all  souls  will  die.  Those  of  the 
pious  will  remain  [after  death]  in  a  certain  better 
place,  and  those  of  the  unholy  and  wicked  in  a  worse, 
all  expecting  the  time  of  judgment.  In  this  manner, 
those  which  are  worthy  to  appear  before  God  never 
die  ;  but  the  others  are  tormented  so  long  as  God  wills 
that  they  should  exist  and  be  tormented  . 
Whatever  does  or  ever  will  exist  in  dependence  on  the 
will  of  God  is  of  a  perishable  nature,  and  can  be  an- 
nihilated so  as  to  exist  no  longer.  God  alone  is  self- 
existent,  and  by  his  own  nature  imperishable,  and 
therefore  he  is  God ;  but  all  other  things  are  begotten 
and  corruptible.  For  which  reason  souls  both  suffer 
punishment  and  die."^ 

It  was  about  this  period,  that  the  venerable  Poly- 
carp  closed  an  aged  and  pious  life,  amidst 
the  flock  he  had  long  cherished  in  the  "  '  ~  '  ' 
great  city  of  Smyi-na.  Exhausted  nature  was  not  per- 
mitted to  expire  in  quiet  decay;  the  persecuting 
heathens  sought  him  out,  and  crowned  him  with  the 
honors  of  martyrdom.  TJie  Relation  of  his  Martyr- 
dam,  written,^  if  genuine  (of  which  there  is  some 

1  Apol.  Prim.,  pp.  57,  64,  etc. 

He  says    the    devil  will  be   punished  througli  an  endless  duration,  anipavrov 
aiUva.     I  Apol.  c.  xxviii.  —  A.  St.  J.  C. 

2  Dialog,  cum.  Tryphonc  pp.  222,  223." 

3  Probably  very  soon  after  the  martyrdom  it  relates ;  which  is  placed  by  Pearson 

a  Compare  c.  V.  vi.  —  A.  St.  J.  C. 


42  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

doubt) ,  by  his  own  church  at  Smyrna,  asserts  that  the 
martyrs  hoped,  by  suffering  the  momentary  torments 
of  their  cruel  death,  "to  escape  that  fire  which  is  eter- 
nal and  shall  not  be  extinguished."  ^  And  Poly  carp 
himself  is  represented,  by  these  writers,  as  reminding 
the  Proconsul,  before  whom  he  was  arraigned  and 
tried,  of  "the  fire  of  future  judgment,  and  of  that 
eternal  punishment  which  is  reserved  for  the  un- 
godly."  2 

This  Relation,  though  composed  apparently  by 
plain,  unlettered  men,  and  manifestly  free  from  the 
corruptions  of  the  Greek  philosophy,  aflbrds  a  mod- 
erate specimen  of  the  hyperbolical  genius  of  that  age. 
When  the  flame,  say  the  writers,  had  arisen  to  a  great 
height  around  Polycarp  at  the  stake,  it  made  a  sort  of 
arch,  leaving  him  untouched  in  the  midst ;  while  a 
rich  odor,  as  of  frankincense,  proceeded  from  his  body, 
and  filled  the  air.  The  executioners,  perceiving  that 
they  could  not  destroy  him  by  burniug,  struck  him 
through  with  a  dagger ;  upon  Avhich  there  came  from 
him  such  a  quantity  of  blood  as  extinguished  the 
flames  !  so  that  it  "  raised  an  admiration  in  all  the 
people  to  consider  what  a  difference  there  was  between 
the  infidels  and  the  elect."  ^ 

Tatian  the  Syrian,  a  convert  from  heathenism,  and 
the  scholar,  perhaps;  of  Justin  Martp',  was  a 
man  of  considerable  Greek  reading,  and  the 


in  A.  D.  147;  by  Usher  and  Le  Clerc  in  169 ;  and  by  Petit  in  175.  Polycarp  %isited 
Rome  while  Anicetus  was  bishop  there ;  to  which  office  the  latter  is  commonly 
supposed  to  have  been  chosen  as  late  as  A.  D.  150. 

1  Relation  of  the  Martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  §  2.  Wake^a  Translation. 

2  Ditto,  §  11. 

3  Ditto,  §§  15,  16. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  43 

author  of  several  works ;  of  which  only  his  Oration 
against  the  Gentiles  is  extant.  In  this  he  represents 
that  such  souls  as  have  not  the  truth  or  knowledsre  of 
God  die  with  the  body,  and  with  it  rise  to  judgment, 
at  the  end  of  the  world  ;  when  they  are  to  undergo  "  a 
death  in  immortality."  ^  To  the  wicked  demons  he 
assigns  the  same  final  doom.^  It  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  Tatian  was,  at  this  time,  like  his  master,  a  follower 
of  the  Platonic  philosophy  ;  but  towards  the  end  of  his 
life  he  ran  into  heresy,  by  prohibiting  marriage,  wine, 
and  divers  sorts  of  meat,  and  by  advocating  certain 
Gnostic  notions. 

In  order  to  embrace  everything  that  relates  to  our 
subject,  we  must  insert  a  small  fragment  from 
an  Ucclesiastical  History  hy  Hegesij[>ims^  an 
author  whose  works  are  lost,  but  who  is  suspected  of 
having  been  a  weak  and  credulous  writer.  He  relates 
that  when  some  of  our  Saviour's  kindi'ed  were  called 
before  the  Emperor  Domitian,  and  questioned  on  the 
nature  of  the  kingdom  they  attributed  to  Christ,  they 
answered  that  it  was  merely  celestial,  and  would  take 
place  "at  the  consummation  of  the  world,  when  he 
should  come  in  his  glory,  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead,  and  reward  every  man  according  to  his  works."  ^ 

1  Tatiani  Assyr.  Contra  Graec.  Orat.,  §§  6  and  13,  a  inter.  Justini  Martyr,  0pp. 
edit.  Paris,  1742.    Ttiis  Oration  is  placed  by  Lardner  between  A.  D.  165  and  172. 

2  Ditto,  §  14. 

3  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  20,  Lardner  dates  Hegisippus's  History  at  the 
year  173. 

«  There  is  nothing  in  §  6,  to  this  effect.  In  §  13  the  language  is,  "The  soul  in 
itself,  O  Greeks,  is  not  immortal,  but  mortal.  But  it  is  possible  for  it  not  to  die. 
At  death  it  is  dissolved  with  the  body,  if  it  is  ignorant  of  the  truth ;  but  it  after- 
wards rises  again,  at  the  end  of  the  world,  united  with  the  body,  receiving  death 
by  punishment  in  immortality"  —  Qa.va.yQv  5td  Ti/xwpt'as  iv  o.Qa.va.<j'i.Q.  Aajix5<w'0U(Ta, 
-A.  St.  J.  C. 


44  THE   ANCIENT   inSTORY 

This  is  evidence  of  the  opinion  of  Hegesippus ;  but 
no  historian  would  probably  consider  it  as  authority 
for  the  sentiments  of  the  persons  he  mentions.  The 
whole  story,  indeed,  is  now  suspected  to  be  fabulous. 
The  Epistle  of  the  Churches  of  Lyons  and  Vienne, 
generally  supposed  to  have  been  written  by 
the  celebrated  Irenseus,  claims  but  a  moment's 
attention.  It  gives  an  affecting,  though  perhaps  ex- 
aggerated, account  of  the  terrible  persecution  and 
martyrdom  of  the  Christians  in  those  two  cities,  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  the  philosophical  emperor,  Marcus 
Aurelius.  Of  one  Byblias,  who  through  weakness 
had  at  first  recanted  her  profession,  it  is  said,  "that  in 
the  midst  of  her  torments  she  returned  to  herself, 
waking  as  it  were  out  of  a  deep  slumber ;  and,  call- 
ing to  recollection  the  everlasting  punishment  in  hell, 
she,  against  all  men's  expectations,  reproved  her  tor- 
mentors." ^ 

The  next,  in  order,  is  Athenagoras,  an  Athenian 
philosopher,  and  probably,  for  a  while, 
master  of  that  distinguished  Christian 
seminary,  the  Catechetical  School  at  Alexandria  in 
Eg}TDt.  He  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aure- 
lius and  to  his  son  Commodus,  an  Apology  for  the 
Christians  ;  and  wrote  a  Treatise  on  the  Resurrection, 
to  remove  the  objections  of  the  heathens,  and  to  con- 
vince them,  by  philosophical  reasonings,  of  the  truth 
of  that  doctrine. 2     Though  a  learned  and  polite  writer, 

1  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  v.,  cap  1.    Lardner  assigns  this  Epistle  to  the  year  177. 

2  His  Apology  is  placed  by  Lardner  at  A.  D.  178-    His  Treatise  on  the  Resurrec- 
tion was  probably  written  soon  afterwards.  « 

aComp.  c.  xviii;  c.  sxv.  — A.  St,  J.  C. 


OF   UNTVERSALISM.  ,  45 

little  notice  was  paid  him  or  his  works,  by  the  early 
fathers. 

He  asserts,  as  a  manifest  fact,  "that  the  righteous 
are  not  properly  rewarded,  nor  the  evil  punished  in 
this  life ; "  and  contends  that  there  is  no  ground  on 
which  we  can  vindicate  the  ways  of  Providence  and 
maintain  the  justice  of  God,  but  by  admitting  a  resur- 
rection to  a  state  of  retribution.  At  the  future  judg- 
ment, says  he,  "rewards  and  punishments  will  be  dis- 
tributed to  all  mankind,  as  they  shall  have  conducted 
well  or  ill ;  "  ^  but  of  the  dm-ation  of  suffering  he  has 
left  us  no  intimation.  He  treats  it  as  a  conjecture  not 
unreasonable,  that  the  brutes  may  be  raised  from  the 
dead,  and  afterwards  remain  in  subjection  to  man.^ 
As  to  the  mode  of  governing  the  universe,  he  says 
that  God  has  distributed  the  angels  into  different  ranks 
and  orders,  and  assigned  to  them  the  care  of  the  ele- 
ments, the  heavens,  and  the  earth.  But  the  angel 
presiding  over  matter,  together  with  some  others, 
swerving  from  their  allegiance,  fell  in  love  with  women, 
and  begat  giants ;  and  those  rebellious  spirits  now 
wander  up  and  down  the  earth,  opposing  God,  excit- 
ing lust,  and  upholding  idolatry,  that  they  may  refresh 
themselves  with  the  blood  and  steam  of  sacrifices.^ 

Of  Theophilus,  bishop  of  the  church  at  Antioch,  we 
have  only  one  work  remaining  :  a  Treatise  in 
defence  of  Christianity,  addressed  to  Autohj- 
cus,  a  learned  heathen.     There  are  sufficient  proofs 
that  our  author  was  a  man  of  at  least  a  moderate  de- 

1  Atbenagor.  De  Resurrec.  passim,  particularly  the  latter  part. 

2  Ditto,  near  the  beginning. 

3  Athenagorae  Legat.  passim. 


46  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

gree  of  learning ;  but,  like  most  of  his  cotempo- 
raries,  he  was  unhappily  an  admirer  of  the  Greek  phi- 
losophy, and  a  believer  in  the  vulgar  superstitions  of 
the  heathens.  His  views  of  future  punishment  may  be 
discovered  from  his  exhortation  to  Autolycus  :  "  Do 
you  also  studiously  read  the  prophetic  Scriptures,  and 
3^ou  will  have  their  safer  light  to  enable  you  to  shun 
everlasting  torments."  Soon  afterwards  he  says  of  the 
unbelievina:  and  abominable,  to  them  there  will  be 
wrath  and  indignation,  tribulation  and  anguish ;  and, 
at  length,  everlasting  fire  shall  be  their  portion."  ^ 
We  arrive,  at  last,  to  the  wi'itings  of  that  distin- 
ofuished    father,     Irenseus.      Born     and 

A.  D.  180—190.  ^ 

brought  up  in  Asia  Minor,  he  attended, 
in  his  youth,  the  discourses  both  of  the  venerable 
Polycarp,  and  of  the  weak,  injudicious  Papias ;  and 
perhaps  enjoyed  some  acquaintance  with  those  who  had 
personally  conversed  with  the  apostles.  At  a  later 
period  he  travelled  into  France,  where  his  piety,  his 
zeal  and  devotedness  to  the  Christian  cause,  together 
with  his  acquirements,  rendered  him  conspicuous,  and 
at  length  elevated  him  to  the  bishopric  of  the  church 


1  Theophili  ad  Autolycura,  lib.  i.,  cap.  14,  inter  Justini  Martyr,  Opp.  edit. 
Paris,  1742.     Lardner  places  this  work  at  A.  D.  181. 

In  another  place,  however,  b.  ii.  c.  sxvi.,  he  seems  to  teach  a  final  universal  restora- 
tion. It  reads :  ''  God  showed  great  kindness  to  man  in  that  he  did  not  suffer  him  to 
remain  forever  in  sin;  but  as  a  kind  of  punishment  cast  him  out  of  Paradise,  in  order 
that,  having  expiated  by  punishment,  within  an  appointed  time,  the  sin,  and  having 
been  disciplined,  he  might  subsequently  be  restored.  'Wlierefore.  also,  when  man 
had  been  formed  in  this  world,  as  is  made  known  mystically  in  Genesis,  as  if  he 
had  twice  been  placed  in  Paradise;  so  that  the  one  was  fulfilled  when  he  was 
placed  there,  and  the  other  will  be  fulfilled  after  the  resurrection  and  judgment. 
For  just  as  a  vessel  which,  after  it  has  been  made,  has  some  ilaw,*is  remade  or 
remoulded,  that  it  may  become  new  and  right,  so  it  comes  to  man  by  death. 
For  in  some  way  or  other  he  is  broken  up,  that  he  may  come  forth  in  the  resur- 
rection whole,  I  mean  spotless,  and  righteous,  and  immortal."  —  A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF  u?:ive:  SALiSM.  47 

at  Lyons.  But,  notwithstanding  his  advantages,  there 
are  some  things  in  his  principal  remaining  work,  that 
Against  Heresies ^^  which  show  that  he  yielded  to  the 
whimsical  and  credulous  turn  of  the  age,  if,  indeed, 
that  were  not  also  his  own  character.  Miracles,  he 
says,  even  fiom  raising  of  the  dead  down  to  the  cast- 
ing out  of  demons,  were,  in  his  time,  frequently  per- 
formed by  Christians ;  so  that  it  was  "  impossible  to 
reckon  up  all  the  mighty  works  which  the  church  per- 
formed, every  day,  for  the  benefit  of  the  nations."^ 
With  the  Greek  philosophy  he  was  not  so  thoroughly 
imbued  as  Justin  Martyr  ;  but,  like  his  master,  Papias, 
he  was  an  assiduous  collector  of  apostolic  traditions, 
and  upon  their  authority  advanced  some  very  ridicu- 
lous notions.^  Some  of  his  allegorical  interpretations  ^ 
of  Scripture,  too,  will  almost  vie,  in  contemptible  ab- 
surdity, with  those  of  Barnabas.  AYe  remark,  once 
for  all,  that  the  principal  writers  mentioned  in  this 
chapter  agreed  in  attributing  to  the  Scriptures  a 
double  meaning,  a  hidden  and  mysterious  as  well  as 
the  obvious. 

With  regard  to  the  future  state,  Irenasus  supposes 
that  souls  are,  after  death,  reserved  in  some  invisible 
place,  the  Infernum  of  the  heathens,  whither  Christ 

1  This  is  a  large,  and  in  many  respects  a  valuable  work.    Lardner  thinks  it  to 
have  been  published  not  long  after  A.  d.  178;  Tillemont,  near  190. 
Siren.  Adv.  nseres,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  57. 

3  In  the  Millennium,  says  he,  *•  there  shall  grow  vineyards,  having  each  ten  thou- 
sand vine-stocks ;  each  stock  ten  thousand  branches;  each  branch  ten  thousand 
twigs ;  each  twig  ten  thousand  bunches ;  each  bunch  ten  thousand  grapes ;  and 
each  grape,  when  pressed,  shall  yield  twenty-five  measures  of  wine.  And  when 
any  of  the  saints*  shall  go  to  pluck  a  bunch,  another  bunch  will  cry  out,  lam  better, 
take  me,  and  bless  the  Lord  through  me.  In  like  manner,  a  grain  of  wheat  sown, 
shall  bear  ten  thousand  stalks ;  each  stalk  ten  thousand  grains ;  and  each  grain  ten 
thousand  pounds  of  the  finest  flour,"  etc.    Ditto,  lib.  v.,  cap.  32,  33. 

4  Ditto,  Ub.  iv.,  cap.  42,  and  lib.  v.,  cap.  8. 


48  ^        THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

went  and  preached  after  liis  crucifixion,  delivering 
from  sufferance  those  who  then  believed.  At  the  end 
of  the  world,  which  was  then  very  near  at  hand,  all 
■were  to  be  raised,  and  brought  to  judgment,  when  the 
just  should  be  admitted  to  a  thousand  years'  reign 
with  Christ  upon  earth,  preparatory  to  endless  bliss  in 
heaven ;  but  the  unjust  should  be  sent  into  inextin- 
guishable and  eternal  fire.^  Here,  he  appears  to  think, 
they  will  be  annihilated :  he  contends  that  souls  or 
spirits,  like  all  other  created  things,  depend  entirely 
on  the  upholding  providence  of  God,  for  their  contin- 
uance in  being,  and  that  they  can  "  exist  only  so  long 
as  he  wills.  For-,"  says  he,  "  the  principle  of  existence 
is  not  inherent  in  our  own  constitution,  but  given  us 
by  God.  He  who  cherishes  this  gift,  and  is  thankful 
to  the  Giver,  shall  exist  forever ;  but  he  who  despises 
it,  and  is  ungrateful,  deprives  himself  of  the  privilege 
of  existing  forever.  Therefore,  the  Lord  said,  If  ije 
have  not  been  faithful  in  a  little,  ivho  ivill  give  you  that 
which  is  greater?  (Luke  xvi.  11)  ;  signifying  that  he 
who  is  ungrateful  to  him  for  this  temporal  life,  which 
is  little,  cannot  justly  expect  from  him  an  existence 
which  is  endless."^ 

It  is  in  Ircnseus  that  we  meet  with  the  earliest  at- 
tempt at  a  formal  summary  of  the  faith,  as  held  by 
the  orthodox  churches  in  general ;  and,  on  this  account, 
his  compendium,  or  creed,  is  worthy  of  particular 
notice.  In  opposition  to  all  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the 
Gnostics,  he  brings  forward  the  system  of  doctrine 
which,  he  says,  "the  churches,  though  scattered  into 

1  Iren.  Adv.  Haeres,  lib.  v.,  cap.  27,  and  passim. 

2  Ditto,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  64. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  *  49 

all  parts  of  the  world,  had  received  from  the  apostles 
and  theh*  disciples,  namely,  To  believe  in  one  God, 
the  omnipotent  Father,  who  made  heaven,  and  earth, 
and  sea,  and  all  things  in  them  ;  in  one  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  incarnate  for  our  salvation ;  and  in 
the  Holy  Ghost,  who  by  the  prophets  declared  the 
dispensation  and  coming  of  Christ,  his  birth  of  a  vir- 
gin, his  suffering,  his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  his 
ascension  in  his  flesh  into  heaven,  and  his  coming  from 
heaven,  in  the  glory  of  the  Father,  to  gather  together 
in  one  all  things,  and  to  raise  the  flesh  of  all  mankind  ; 
that  unto  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  Saviour,  and  King, 
according  to  the  will  of  the  invisible  Father,  every 
knee  shall  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  on  earth,  and 
under  the  earth,  and  every  tongue  confess  to  him  ;  and 
that  he  shall  pass  a  righteous  sentence  upon  all,  and 
send  wicked  spirits,  and  the  angels  who  have  trans- 
gressed, together  with  ungodly  men,  into  eternal  fire, 
but  give  life  to  the  righteous  who  have  kept  his  com- 
mandments and  abided  in  his  love,  either  from  the 
beginning  or  after  repentance,  and  confer  on  them 
mortality  and  eternal  glory."  ^ 

A  great  number  of  the  early  productions  of  the 
orthodox,  and  all  those  of  the  heretics,  are  lost,  and 
with  them,  probably,  some  information  upon  the 
subject  of  our  history.  Thus  far,  however,  we  have 
carefully  produced,  in  his  own  words,  the  opinion  of 
every  writer  whose  works  are  extant ;  we  have  also 
presented  the  views  of  the  heretics  upon  this  subject, 

llren.  Adv.HseresJib.  i.,  cap.  2.  Anyone,  acquainted  with  the  notions  attributed 
to  the  Gnostics,  will  instantly  perceive  that  almost  every  expression  in  this  creed 
was  framed  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  them ;  as,  indeed,  is  intimated  by  the 
manner  in  which  Irenaeus  introduces  the  passage. 


50  *         THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

from  the  best  authorities  within  our  reach.  To  the 
reader  belongs  the  privilege  of  such  reflections  as  the 
whole  case,  now  pretty  fully  laid  before  him,  may 
suggest.  We  will,  however,  observe  that  of  the  or- 
thodox writers,  nearly  all  allude  to,  or  expressly 
assert,  a  future  judgment  and  a  future  state  of  punish- 
ment :  seven  ^  call  it  the  everlasting,  the  eternal  fire  or 
torment :  but  out  of  these  there  are  three  who  cer- 
tainly did  not  think  it  endless,  since  two  of  them 
believed  the  damned  would  be  annihilated,  and  the 
other  asserted  their  restoration  to  bliss.  What  were 
the  views  of  the  remaining  four  upon  this  point 
cannot  be  determined ;  for  the  circumstance  just 
mentioned  shows  that  .their  use  of  the  word  everlast- 
ing is  no  criterion.  The  others  whom  we  have 
passed  in  review  are  silent  with  regard  to  the  dura- 
tion of  misery. 

To  these  remarks  we  must  add,  that  such  of  the 
Gnostic  sects  as  are  thought  to  have  held  the  salvation 
of  all  souls  still  flourished ;  but  their  history,  like 
that  of  all  the  heretic  Christians,  is  obscure  and  un- 
certain. 

Among  the  orthodox,  it  is  curious  to  mark  the 
seeming  progress  of  sentiment  concerning  a  future 
state  of  punishment.  In  their  earliest  writings,  that 
of  Clemens  Eomanus  and  those  of  Ignatius,  it  is  either 
wholly  omitted,  or  else  expressed  in  the  most  in- 
definite manner.  Afterwards,  we  find  it  introduced 
as  a  peculiar  motive  of  terror ;  and  as  such  it  became 


1  Xamcly,  Barnabas,  Hermas,  Sibylline  Oracles,  Justin  Martyr,  Kelation  of 
Polycarp's  Martyrdom,  Thcopbilus,  and  Irenaeus  in  the  Letter  of  the  churches  of 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  and  in  his  work  Against  Heresies. 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  51 

more  and  more  employed,  even  by  those  who  ex- 
pressly assigned  it  a  limited  duration.  When  the 
Greek  philosophy  and  heathen  superstitions  began  to 
prevail  in  the  church,  they  soon  succeeded  in  deline- 
ating the  whole  topography  of  the  infernal  realm, 
pointed  out  its  divisions,  described  its  regulations, 
and  familiarly  brought  to  light  all  its  secrets. 

In  the  succeeding  parts  of  our  work  we  shall  not 
detain  the  reader  with  a  distinct  paragraph  for  every 
ecclesiastical  writer ;  but  direct  om-  attention  more 
specially  to  those  authors  and  those  parties  who 
advocated  the  salvation  of  all  mankind.  In  the  mean 
time,  however,  we  shall  aim  at  such  a  representation 
as  will  afford  a  general  view  of  the  notions  entertained 
by  the  church  at  large,  in  relation  to  that  subject. 


52  THE  ANCIENT  HISTORY 


CHAPTEE   III. 

FROM  A.  D.    190  TO   A.  D.   230. 

Of   all   the   Christian  fathers,  before   Origen,  the 
most    ilkistrioiis   wi'iter,   and    the    most 

A.  D.  190  to  196.  . 

renowned  for  extensive  erudition,  was 
Clemens  Alexandrinus.  That  he  was  a  Universalist 
is  alleged  against  him  by  some  of  the  learned,^  and 
sufficiently  manifest  from  his  works  yet  extant; 
though  he  seldom  affords  us  a  direct  and  positive 
assertion  to  this  point.  He  uniformly  asserts,  how- 
ever, and  illustrates,  the  universal  goodness  of  God, 
the  benevolent  nature  of  justice,  the  salutary  design 
and  effect  of  punishment  both  here  and  hereafter,  the 
purification  of  the  damned  in  hell,  and  their  deliver- 
ance from  suffering  and  exaltation  to  bliss. 

"The   Lord,"  says  he,  "does  good   unto  all,  and 
delights  in  all ;  as  God,  he  forgives  our  trangressiong, 

1  The  learned  and  orthodox  DaiEe  says :  "It  is  manifest,  throughout  his  works, 
that  Clemens  thought  all  the  punishments  that  God  inflicts  upon  men  are  salutary, 
and  executed  by  him  only  for  the  purpose  of  instruction  and  reformation.  Of  this 
kind  he  reckons  the  torments  which  the  damned  in  hell  suffer.  .  .  .  From  Vv'hich 
we  discover  that  Clemens  was  of  the  same  opinion  as  his  scholar  Oi-igen,  who  every- 
where teaches  that  all  the  punishments  of  those  ia  hell  are  purgatorial,  that  they 
are  not  endless,  but  will  at  length  cease,  when  the  damned  are  sufficiently  purified 
by  the  fire."    Dallaci  Do  Usu  Patrum,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4. 

Archbishop  Potter,  having  spoken  of  Origen's  belief  in  the  salvation  of  all  the 
damned,  and  of  the  devil  himself,  adds,  ''from  which  opinion  Clemens  does  not 
appear  to  have  differed  much,  as  he  taught  that  the  devil  can  repent,  and  that 
even  the  most  heinous  sins  are  purged  away  by  punishments  after  death."  V.  Not. 
h\  Clem.  Alexand.  Strom.,  lib.  vi.,  p.  794,  edit.  Potter,  1715. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  53 

and  as  Man,  he  teaches  and  instructs  us  that  we  may 
not  sin.  Man  is,  indeed,  necessarily  dear  to  God, 
because  he  is  his  workmanship.  Other  things  he  made 
only  by  his  order ;  but  man  he  formed  by  his  own 
hand,  and  breathed  into  him  his  distinguishing 
properties.  Now,  whatever  was  created  by  him, 
especially  in  his  own  image,  must  have  been  created 
because  it  was,  in  itself,  desirable  to  God,  or  else 
desirable  from  some  other  consideration.  If  man  was 
made  because  he  was  in  himself  desirable,  then  God 
loved  him  on  account  of  his  being  good ;  and  there 
certainly  is  in  man  that  lovely  principle,  called  the 
breath  or  inspiration  of  God.  But  if  it  was  on  ac- 
count of  some  other  desirable  end  that  he  was  made, 
then  there  could  be  no  other  reason  why  God  should 
create  him,  than  that  God  could  not  otherwise  be  a 
benevolent  Maker,  nor  his  glory  be  displayed  to  the 
hmnan  race.  .  .  .  And,  indeed,  in  either  case,  man 
may  be  said  to  be,  in  himself  considered,  a  being 
desirable  to  God,  since  the  Almighty,  who  cannot  err 
in  his  undertakings,  made  him  just  such  as  he  desired. 
He  therefore  loves  him.  How,  indeed,  is  it  possible 
that  he  should  not  love  him,  for  whom  he  sent  his 
only  begotten  Son  from  his  own  bosom  ?  "  ^ 

There  are  some,^  says  Clemens,  who  deny  that  the 
Lord  is  good,  because  he  inflicts  punishments  and 
enjoins  fear.  To  this  he  replies,  that  "there  is  no  tiling 
which  the  Lord  hates ;  for  he  cannot  hate  anything 
and  yet  will  that  it  should  exist ;  nor  can  he  will  that 
anything  should  not  exist,  and  at  the  same  time  cause 

1  Clem.  Alexand.  Psedagog.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  3,  pp.  101, 102,  edit.  Potter. 

2  Clemens  here  alludes  to  the  Marcionites,  a  Gnostic  sect. 


54  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

it  to  exist.  Now  as  the  Lord  is  certainly  the  cause  of 
whatever  exists,  he  cannot,  of  course,  desire  that  any- 
thing which  is,  should  not  be  ;  and  therefore  he  cannot 
hate  anything,  as  all  exist  by  his  own  will."  And, 
continues  our  author,  "if- he  hates  none  of  his  works, 
then  it  is  evident  that  he  loves  them  all,  especially 
man  above  the  rest,  who  is  the  most  excellent  of  his 
creatures.  Now  whoever  loves  another  wishes  to 
benefit  him ;  and  therefore  Ood  does  good  unto  all. 
He  does  not  merely  bless  them  in  some  particulars, 
yet  neglect  all  care  over  them ;  he  is  both  careful  for 
them,  and  solicitous  for  their  interests."  Con- 
sistently with  this,  Clemens  adds,  that  God's  "justice 
is,  of  itself,  nothing  but  goodness  ;  for  it  rewards  the 
virtuous  with  blessings,  and  conduces  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  sinful.  There  are  many  evil  affections 
which  are  to  be  cured  only  by  suffering.  Punishment 
is,  in  its  operation,  like  medicine  :  it  dissolves  the 
hard  heart,  purges  away  the  filth  of  uncleanness, 
and  reduces  the  swellings  of  pride  and  haughtiness ; 
thus  restoring  its  subject  to  a  sound  and  healthful 
state.  It  is  not  from  hatred,  therefore,  that  the  Lord 
rebukes  mankind."  ^ 

"It  is  the  office  of  salutary  justice,"  says  he,  in  an- 
other place,  "continually  to  exalt  everything  towards 

1  Psedagog.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  8,  pp.  135—140.  N.  B.  —  I  have  attempted  in  this  para- 
gi-aph  to  compress  the  argument  which  Clemens,  in  his  diffuse  style  and  rambling 
method,  spreads  over  two  or  three  folio  pages. « 

a  Comp.  Strom,  i.,  xxvi.  11,  "  and  punishment,  in  virtue  of  its  being  so,  is  the 
correction  of  the  soul."  And  viii.,  xvi.  24.  ''But  as  children  are  chastised  by 
their  teachers,  or  their  father,  so  are  we  by  Providence.  But  G-od  does  not  pun- 
ish ;  for  punishment  is  retaliation  for  evil.  He  chastises,  however,  for  good  to 
those  who  are  chastised,  collectively  and  iadividually."  — A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  55 

the  best  state  of  which  it  is  capable.  Inferior  things 
are  adapted  to  promote  and  confirm  the  salvation  of 
that  which  is  more  excellent ;  and  thus  whatever  is 
endued  with  any  virtue  is  forthwith  changed  still  for 
the  better,  through  the  liberty  of  choice,  which  the 
mind  has  in  its  own  power.  And  the  necessary  chas- 
tisements of  the  great  Judge,  who  regards  all  with 
benignity,  make  mankind  grieve  for  their  sins  and 
imperfections,  and  advance  them  through  the  various 
states  of  discipline  to  perfection.^  "Even  God's 
wrath,  if  so  his  admonitions  can  be  called,  is  full  of 
benevolence,  towards  the  human  race  ;  for  whose  sake 
the  word  of  God  was  made  man."  ^ 

The  same  means  which  are  employed  upon  earth  for 
the  salvation  of  the  living  are  introduced,  he  thinks, 
among  the  dead,  for  the  restoration  of  such  as  died, 
either  in  sin,  or  in  ignorance  and  unbelief  of  Jesus 
Christ:  "Wherefore,  our  Lord,"  says  he,  "preached 
also  in  the  regions  of  the  dead  ;  for  says  the  Scripture, 
the  Grave  saith  to  Destruction,  His  countenance  ice 
have  not  indeed  beheld,  but  ive  have  heard  his  voice, 
(Job  xxviii.  22.)  It  is  not  the  j;?ace,  however,  which 
thus  speaks,  but  its  inhabitants,  who  had  delivered 
themselves  to  destruction.  They  heard  the  divine 
power  and  voice.  And,  indeed,  who  can  suppose  that 
souls  [which  departed  ignorant  of  Christ]  are  indis- 
criminately abandoned,  the  virtuous  and  the  vicious, 
to  the  same  condemnation,  thus  impeaching  the 
justice  of  providence  ?  Does  not  the  Scripture  inform 
us  that  the  Lord  preached  the  gospel  even  to  those 

1  Stromat.,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  2,  p.  825. 

2  Paedagog.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  8,  p.  142. 


56  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

who  perished  in  the  deluge,  and  were  confined  in 
prison  ?  ^  We  have  ah'eady  shown  that  the  apostles 
also,  as  well  as  their  Master,  preached  the  gospel  to 
the  dead.  .  .  .  Wherefore,  since  the  Lord  descended 
to  hell  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  preach  the  gospel 
there,  he  preached  it  either  to  all,  or  only  to  the  Jews. 
If  to  all,  then  all  who  believed  there,  were  saved, 
whether  Jews  or  Gentiles.  And  the  chastisements  of 
God  are  salutary  and  instructive,  leading  to  amend- 
ment, and  preferring  the  repentance  to  the  death  of 
the  sinner ;  especially  as  souls  in  their  separate  state, 
though  darkened  by  evil  passions,  have  yet  a  clearer 
discernment  than  they  had  whilst  in  the  body,  because 
they  are  no  longer  clouded  and  encumbered  by  the 
fltsh."  ^  Again  he  says,  "  Now  all  the  poets,  as  well 
as  the  Greek  philosophers,  took  their  notions  of  the 
punishments  after  death,  and  the  torments  of  fire, 
from  the  Hebrews.  Does  not  Plato  mention  the  rivers 
of  fire,  and  that  profound  abyss  which  the  Jews 
call  Gehenna  [hell],  together  with  other  places  of 
punishment,  where  the  characters  of  men  are  reformed 
by  sufiering?"^  It  would,  however,  far  exceed  our 
limits  to  transcribe  the  passages  of  this  kind  scattered 
throu«:h  his  writinc^s. 

With  regard  to  the  actual  salvation  of  all,  the  fol- 


1  In  another  place  Clemens  says,  "If  therefore,  the  Lord  preached  the  gospel  to 
those  in  the  flesh,  lest  they  should  he  unjustly  condemned,  was  it  not  necessary, 
for  the  same  reason,  that  ho  should  preach  also  to  those  who  had  departed  this 
life  before  his  advent?  And  as  all  sinful  flesh  perished  in  the  deluge,  we  must 
believe  that  the  will  of  God,  which  has  the  power  of  instructing  and  operating, 
confers  salvation  upon  those  who  are  converted  by  the  punishments  inflicted  on 
them."    Stromal.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  0,  p.  766. 

2Stromat.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  6,  pp.  763,  764. 

3  Ditto,  lib.  v.,  cap.  14,  p.  700. 


OF   UNIVEESALTSM.  57 

lowing  are,  perhaps,  his  fullest  and  most  pointed  ex- 
pressions :  "  How  is  he  a  Saviour  and  Lord,  unless  he 
is  the  Saviour  and  Lord  of  all  ?  He  is  certainly  the 
Saviour  of  those  who  have  believed ;  and  of  those 
who  have  not  believed  he  is  the  Lord,  until,  by  being 
brought  to  confess  him,  they  shall  receive  the  proper 
and  well-adapted  blessing  for  themselves."  ^  "  The 
Lord,"  says  he,  "es  the  jjropitiation,  not  only  for  our 
sins,  that  is,  of  the  faithful,  but  also  for  the  icJiole 
ivorld  (1  John  ii.  2)  ;  therefore  he  indeed  saves  all, 
but  converts  some  by  punishments,  and  others  by 
gaining  their  free  will ;  so  that  he  has  the  high  honor, 
that  unto  him  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven, 
on  earth,  and  under  the  earth;  that  is,  angels,  men, 
and  the  souls  of  those  who  died  before  his  advent."  ^ 

It  is  remarkable  that  Clemens,  unlike  the  other 
ancient  fjithers  who  believed  in  Universalism,  appears 
to  have  avoided  the  use  of  such  epithets  and  phrases 
as  everlasting ,  forever  and  ever,  etc. ,  in  connection  with 
misery.^  Nor  does  he  seem  to  have  considered  the 
torments  of  the  future  state  very  intense,  as  he  never 
represents  them  in  terrific  colors,  nor  dwells  upon 
them  in  a  way  to  agitate  the  mind  with  fear.  AVhen 
the  virtuous  Christian  dies,  he  enters  upon  a  mild  and 
grateful  discipline,  which,  by  purifying  his  remaining 
faults,  and  supplpng  his  imperfections,  elevates  him 
by  degrees  from   glory  to   glory,  till  he   arrives  at 

1  Stromat.,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  2,  p.  833. 

2  Fragmenta.    Adumbrat.  in  Epist.  I.  Johan.,  p.  1009. 

3  The  only  place  I  recollect  in  all  bis  writings,  where  any  of  these  controverted 
words  is  applied  to  suffering,  is  Ptedagog.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  8,  end^  p.  142.  ''When  the 
soul  has  ceased  to  grieve  for  its  sins,  it  is  not,  even  then,  a  time  to  inflict  upon  it 
a  deadly  wound,  but  a  healthful  one,  that  by  a  little  grief  it  may  escape  eteriial 
deathP 


58  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORT 

perfection ;  but  the  soul  of  an  obstinate  and  vicious 
infidel  must,  before  it  can  begin  this  sublime  progres- 
sion, be  overcome  by  severe  chastisement,  instructed 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  brought  to  control 
its  passions. 

Like  all  the  early  fathers,  Clemens  held  the  entire 
and  permanent  freedom  of  the  human  will,  contrary 
to  the  present  orthodox  doctrines  of  predestination 
and  irresistible  grace.  Original  sin  and  total  depravity 
were  unknown  in  his  day ;  as  was  also  the  modern 
notion  of  a  mysterious  and  counter-natural  conversion. 

T7e  may  now  complete  the  sketch  of  his  general 
system  of  doctrine  :  God,  infinitely  and  unchangeably 
good,  created  man  upright,  though  not  entirely^  per- 
fect, and  designed  him  and  all  his  posterity  for  hap- 
piness. But  Adam,  being  left  to  his  own  free  will, 
yielded  to  temptation  ;  and  so,  in  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree, have  all  mankind  after  him.  As  the  world  thus 
began  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  God,  in  the  indul- 
gence of  vice,  and  under  the  dominion  of  evil  demonsj 
the  Almighty  gave,  as  a  partial  remedy,  tlie  Law  to 
the  Jews,  and  Philosophy  to  the  Gentiles,  in  order  to 
restrain  and  enlighten  them  in  some  measure,  till  the 
coming  of  Christ.  Both  the  Law  and  Philosophy 
were  preparatory  to  the  Gospel ;  and  so  far  as  the 
Hebrews  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Heathens  on  the 
other,  preserved  and  practised  their  respective  systems 
in  their  pristine  purity,  they  were  justified ;  though 
they  still  needed  evangelical  faith  to  prepare  them  for 
heaven.  At  length,  God  was  pleased  to  grant  the 
world  a  full  and  perfect  revelation  ;    and  for  this  pur- 

1  Stromat.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  23,  p.  632. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  59 

pose  sent  his  Son,  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament, 
who  was  a  divine  agent,  begotten  of  the  Father.  He 
came,  not  to  appease  God,  whom  Clemens  thought 
originally  and  immutably  good,  but  to  crush  the  power 
of  the  evil  demons,  to  impart  the  knowledge  and 
commend  the  love  of  God  to  mankind,  to  instruct 
them  in  religion,  and  to  set  before  them  a  perfect  exam- 
ple of  piety  and  virtue .  That  these  means  may  become 
effectual  to  the  salvation  of  the  world,  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  divine  providence  and  government  is  constantly 
directed  to  induce  mankind  to  believe  and  obey  their 
Saviour.  To  this  end,  the  Almighty  urges  them  by 
threatenings  and  punishments,  and  allures  them  by 
promises  and  rewards ;  and  if  they  die  impenitent  or 
unbelieving,  a  similar  course  is  pursued  with  them  after 
death,  until  they  are  brought  to  submission.  After  all, 
faith  and  obedience  depend,  both  here  and  hereafter,  on 
the  free  will  of  the  creature  ;  though  God,  by  his  Holy 
Spirit,  communicates  impulses  to  all,  and,  by  his  grace, 
assists  those  who  strive  to  obey.     Such  were  his  views. 

He  was  a  hearty  champion  of  the  orthodox  church 
against  the  heretics,  particularly  against  all  the  Gnos- 
tics ;  and  he  has  had  the  good,  or  indifferent,  fortune, 
that,  notwithstanding  his  manifest  Universalism,  his 
doctrine  Was  reprehended  by  none  of  his  cotempo- 
raries,  nor  his  standing  ever  impeached,  even  in  after 
ages,  when  the  works  of  Origen  came  to  be  anathe- 
matized, partly  on  account  of  the  same  sentiment. 

Titus  Flavins  Clemens,  usually  called  Clemens  Al- 
exandrinus,  or  Clement  of  Alexandria,  is  thought  by 
some  to  have  been  a  native  of  Athens,  and  by  others, 
of  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  where  he  certainly  spent  the 


60  THE   ANCIENT   HTSTOEY 

most  memorable  part  of  his  life.  The  precise  dates 
of  his  birth  and  death  are  miknown ;  and  not  the 
slightest  account  is  preserved  of  his  childhood  an' 
youth.  It  appears  that,  after  travelling  through  man^ 
countries  in  pursuit  of  philosophical  and  religious 
knowledge,  he  sat  down  at  last  under  the  instructions 
of  the  learned  Pantaenus,  a  Christian  philosopher,  in 
Egypt.  Here  Clemens  studied,  in  conformity  with 
the  plan  of  his  master,  to  extract  from  all  the  schemes 
of  philosophy  then  in  vogue,  from  the  Oriental  as  well 
as  the  Grecian,  what  he  deemed  their  original  princi- 
ples, and  to  form  a  system  for  himself  out  of  all  these 
combined  ;  though  he  gave  a  decided  preference  to  the 
tenets  of  the  Stoics.  About  the  year  195,  he  was  or- 
dained a  presbyter  in  the  church  at  Alexandria  ;  and, 
near  the  same  time,  was  appointed,  in  the  absence  of 
Pantaenus,  to  supply  his  place  as  President  of  the  fa- 
mous Catechetical  School  in  that  city.  In  addition  to 
the  cares  and  labors  which  necessarily  devolved  upon 
him  from  these  two  offices,  he  composed,  it  is  thought, 
at  about  this  period,  those  of  his  works  which  are  yet 
extant.^ 


1  These  are,  1,  His  Exhortation  to  the  Gentiles,  designed  to  confute  the  notions 
of  the  heathens,  and  to  con-vince  them  of  the  truth  of  Christianity;  2,  his  Pada- 
gogue,  wiitten  to  instruct  new  converts,  and  to  train  them  up  to  a  holy  and  truly 
Christian  life;  3,  his  Stroniata,  a  miscellaneous  woi'k,  containing  a  more  particu- 
lar illustration  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  together  with  confutations  both  of  the 
heathen  religions,  and  of  the  heretical  opinions,  particularly  those  of  the  Gnostics; 
4,  his  Tract  entitled,  Whatliich  Man  shall  be  saved  ;  5,  his  Epitome  of  the  Oriental 
Doctrine  of  Theodotus  :  and  6,  his  Comments  on  some  of  the  Epistles  of  the  New 
Testament.  These  Comments  were  fonncrly  thought  supposititious ;  but  they  are 
now  generally  considered  fragments  from  his  Ilypotifposes,  a  work  which  is  lost. 
His  Exhortations  to  the  Gentiles,  Paedagogue,  and  Stromata.  are  supposed  to  have 
been  written  between  A.  D.  193  and  195  (Dodwell,  Dissert,  iii.  in  Irenajum,  and 
Dissert,  de  prim.  Pontif.  Ptoman.  successione.  Moshcim.  Dissertationes  ad  Hist. 
Eccl.,  vol.  I., pp.  34 — 38);  his  Hypotyposes  perhaps  earlier. 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  61 

Alexandria,  next  to  Rome  the  most  populous  and 
frequented  city  of  that  age,  was  then  the  great  empo- 
rium of  literature,  philosophy,  and  religion.  The 
splendor  of  learning,  which  had  once  beamed  so  full 
upon  Athens,  seemed  returned,  though  with  many  fan- 
tastic colors,  to  shine  upon  the  native  land  of  letters 
and  of  science.  Some  of  the  celebrity,  and  many  of 
the  advantages,  which  the  capital  of  Egypt  now  en- 
joyed, arose,  undoubtedly,  from  its  immense  library, 
the  largest  the  world  had  ever  seen.  Seven  hundred 
thousand  manuscripts,  deposited  in  two  sections  of  the 
city,  offered  to  the  inquisitive  geniuses  who  assembled 
from  every  region,  all  the  treasures  of  ancient  wisdom 
and  folly. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  the  Christians 
of  this  city  had  supported  a  school,  founded,  it  is  said, 
by  St.  Mark;  but  it  had  always  been  obscure,  and 
kept  in  rather  a  private  manner,  till  the  time  of  Pan- 
tseiius.  When  he  succeeded  to  its  care,  he  brought  it 
into  public  notice,  and  soon  rendered  it  the  first,  in 
character  and  renown,  of  all  the  ancient  Christian 
seminaries. 

While  Clemens  presided  here,  with  distinguished 
reputation,  he  had  the  honor  of  instructing  some  who 
arose  to  eminence  in  the  church,  particularly  Alexan- 
der, afterwards  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  celebrated 
Origen.  But  about  a.  d.  202,  the  persecution  under 
the  Emperor  Severus,  which  spread  death  and  terror 
through  the.  church  at  Alexandria,  drove  Clemens 
from  the  city.  It  is  supposed  that  he  embraced  this 
opportunity  to  revisit  the  eastern  countries  ;  and  we 
find  him,  in  the  year  205,  at  Jerusalem,  in  comjpany 


62  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

with  his  scholar,  Alexander.  From  this  place  we 
trace  him  to  Antioch ;  whence  he  returned,  it  is 
thought,  to  Alexandria,  and,  in  connection  with  Ori- 
gen,  resumed,  for  a  while,  the  care  of  the  school.  He 
died  not  far,  probably,  from  a.  d.  217.^ 

So  imperfect  is  the  account  preserved  of  this  dis- 
tinguished father.  Of  his  learning,  the  ancients  uni- 
formly speak  in  terms  of  admiration.  His  reading  was 
certainly  extensive,  almost  universal ;  history,  poetry, 
mythology,  and  philosophy  seem  perfectly  familiar  to 
him  ;  and  the  sacred  Scriptures,  together  with  all  that 
related  to  the  concerns  of  the  church,  were  treasured 
in  his  memory.  With  his  great  learning  and  piety, 
the  placid  benevolence  of  his  disposition  must  have 
conspired  to  render  him  esteemed  and  beloved.  If  we 
may  judge  from  the  character  of  his  writings,  his  pas- 
sions were  naturally  moderate,  his  heart  benignant, 
and  incapable  of  sourness  and  severity.  Impartiality 
obliges  us,  however,  to  remark,  that,  like  the  rest  of 
the  early  fathers,  he  wanted  sober  judgment;  he  was 
credulous,  fanciful,  and  incorrect,  ignorant  of  rational 
criticism,  and  delighted  with  allegorical  interpretations 
of  Scripture.  His  fondness  for  the  heathen  systems 
of  philosophy  was  extravagant ;  and  it  is  thought  that 
his  example  had  the  pernicious  influence  to  recommend 
those  systems  to  a  more  general  admiration  in  the 
church.  He  was  naturally  of  a  poetical  genius  ;  his 
style  often  runs  into  metre,  and  his  works  abound 
with  quotations  from  the  ancient  poets  and  philoso- 
phers, as  well  as  from  the  Scriptures.     His  method  of 

1  For  his  life  see  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  and  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc., 
chap.  Clement  of  Alexandria. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  63 

writing  is  careless,  feeble,  and  sometimes  very  ram- 
bling. 

Passing  over  several  writers  of  little  note,  we  shall 
now  make  some  observations  on  the  only 

•^        A.  D.  200  to  204. 

succeeding  fathers  of  eminence,  before 
Origen.  Cotemporary  with  Clemens,  but  belonging 
to  the  Western  or  Latin  church,  was  the  celebrated 
Tertullian,  a  presbyter  of  Carthage  in  Africa ;  a  man 
of  extensive  learning,  of  strong  and  vehement  genius, 
but  severe  and  morose,  superstitious  and  fanatical, 
even  when  compared  with  those  of  his  own  age.  He 
is  thouofht  to  have  been  the  first  Christian  writer  who 
expressly  asserted  that  the  torments  of  the  damned  will 
be  of  "  equal  ^  duration  "  with  the  happiness  of  the  blest. 

1  TertuUiani  Apologet.,  cap.  18.  At  the  general  resurrection  and  judgment, 
eays  he,  "  God  will  recompense  his  worshippers  with  life  eternal;  and  cast  the 
profane  into  a  fire  equally  perpetual  and  unintermitted."  See  Whifftoji  on  the 
Eternity  of  Hell  and  Torments,  p.  86.  N.  B.—  Tertullian's  Apology  was  written 
about  A.  D.  200.a 

a  This  is  the  only  place,  so  far  as  we  have  discovered,  where  Tertullian  is  thus 
definite  as  to  duration  of  punishment.  Like  all  the  ''  fathers,"  he  speaks  freely  of 
"  everlasting  "  punishment.  Yet  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  he  did  not  look  to 
the  end  of  sin,  either  by  the  annihilation  of  the  sinner,  or  his  restoration  at  some 
time  in  the  far-off  future.  In  his  work  against  Marcion,  he  argues  against  his 
(Marciou's)  limitation  of  salvation,  thus :  "  But  since  God  is  eternal  and  rational, 
thus  I  think :  He  is  perfect  in  all  things.  '  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect.'  (Matt.  v.  48.)  That  it  is  indeed  imperfect  has 
been  already  fully  shown,  since  it  is  found  to  be  neither  natural  nor  rational. 
The  same  conclusion,  however,  shall  now  be  made  apparent  by  another  method : 
it  is  not  simply  imperfect,  but  actually  defective,  weak,  and  exhausted,  failing  to 
embrace  the  full  number  of  its  material  objects,  and  not  manifesting  itself  in  them 
all.  For  all  are  not  made  salvable.,  but  a  few  of  all  the  Creator's  subjects,  both 
Jew  and  Christian.  Now,  when  the  greater  part  thus  perish,  how  can  that  good- 
ness be  defended  as  perfect  which  is  inoperative  in  most  cases,  is  somewhat  only 
in  few,  naught  in  many,  succumbs  to  perdition,  and  is  a  partner  with  destruction  ? 
And  if  so  many  shall  miss  salvation,  it  will  not  be  with  goodness,  but  with  malignity. 
For  as  it  is  the  operation  of  goodness  which  brings  salvation,  so  is  it  malevolence 
which  does  not  bring  it.  .  .  .  So  long,  then,  as  you  prefer  your  God  to  the 
Creator  on  the  simple  ground  of  his  goodness,  and  since  he  professes  to  have  this 
attribute  as  solely  and  wholly  his  own,  he  ought  not  to  have  been  wanting  in  it 


64  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

This  circumstance  is,  indeed,  no  proof  that  the  same 
opinion  had  never  been  entertained  before ;  but  we 
may  safely  say  that,  of  all  the  early  fathers,  there  was 
none  with  whose  natural  disposition  the  doctrine  of 
endless  misery  better  accorded  than  with  Tertullian's  : 
"You  are  fond  of  your  spectacles,"  said  he,  in  allusion 
to  the  pagans  ;  "  there  are  other  spectacles  :  that  day 
disbelieved,  derided,  by  the  nations,  that  last  eternal 
day  of  judgment,  when  all  ages  shall  be  swallowed 
up  in  one  conflagration,  — what  a  variety  of  spectacles 
shall  then  appear  !  How  shall  I  admire,  how  laugh, 
how  rejoice,  how  exult,  when  I  behold  so  many  kings, 
worshipped  as  gods  in  heaven,  together  with  Jove 
himself,  groaning  in  the  lowest  abyss  of  darkness  ! 
so  many  magistrates  who  persecuted  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  liquefying  in  fiercer  flames  than  they  ever  kin- 
dled against  Christians ;  so  many  sage  philosophers 
blushing  in  raging  fire,  with  their  scholars  whom  they 
persuaded  to  despise  God,  and  to  disbelieve  the 
resurrection ;  and  so  many  poets  shuddering  before 
the  tribunal,  not  of  llhadamanthus,  not  of  Minos,  but 
of  the  disbelieved  Christ  1  Then  shall  we  hear  the 
tragedians  more  tuneful  under  their  own  sufferings ; 
then  shall  we  see  the  players  far  more  sprightly 
amidst  the  flames  ;  the  charioteer  all  red-hot  in  his 
burning  car ;  and  the  wrestlers  hurled,  not  upon  the 
accustomed  list,  but  on  a  plain  of  fii^e."^     Such  is  the 

1  Tertull.,  de  Spectaculis,  cap.  30.    AVritten  abouf  A.  d.  203  or  204. 

to  anyone."  B.  i.  c.  xxiv.  Conip.  xxvi.  — ''But  it  would  be  more  unworthy  in 
God  to  spare  the  evil-doer  than  to  punish  him,  especially  in  the  most  good  and 
holy  God,  who  is  not  otherwise  entirely  good  except  as  the  enemy  of  evil,  and 
that  to  such  an  extent  as  to  show  His  love  of  good  by  the  hatred  of  evil,  and  to 
fulfil  his  defence  of  the  good  by  the  extirpation  of  the  evil."  —  A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF  UNIVEKSALISM.  65 

relish  with  which  his  fierce  spirit  dwells  on  the  pros- 
pect of  eternal  torments.  His  gloomy  and  enthnsi- 
astic  disposition  soon  led  him  to  abandon  the  regular 
churches,  as  not  sufficiently  austere  and  visionary,  and 
to  join  himself  to  the  fanatical  sect  of  Montanists. 

Next  to  Tertullian  is  Minucius  Felix,  another  writer 
of  the  Western  church,  either  a  Roman  or  an 
African,  a  lawyer  by  profession,  and  a  man 
of  considerable  learning.  His  Dialogue,  the  only 
work  he  has  left  us,  is  a  popular  disputation,  elegantly 
written,  in  defence  of  Christianity  against  paganism ; 
but  its  beauty  is  somewhat  sullied  by  a  mixture  of  hea- 
then superstitions,  and  its  force  impaired  by  frequent 
declamation  instead  of  argument.  The  author  seems  to 
assert  the  strict  eternity  of  hell  torments,  and  to  rep- 
resent that  his  was  the  common  opinion  of  Chiistians 
on  the  subject.  In  allusion  to  the  Grecian  fable  of  the 
tremendous  oath  of  the  gods,  he  says  that  Jupiter 
swears  by  the  broiling  banks  of  the  river  of  fire,  and 
"  shudders  at  the  torments  which  await  him  and  his 
worshippers  :  torments  that  know  neither  measure  nor 
end.  For  there  the  subtile  fire  burns  and  repairs, 
consumes  and  nourishes  ;  and  as  lightnings  waste  not 
the  bodies  they  blast,  and  as  ^tna,  Vesuvius,  and  other 
volcanoes  <3ontinue  to  burn  without  expending  their 
fuel,  so  these  penal  flames  of  hell  are  fed,  not  from 
the  diminution  of  the  damned,  but  from  the  bodies 
they  prey  upon  without  consuming."  ^  The  objector 
to  Christianity  is,  in  another  passage,  represented  as 


1  Minucii  Fel.  Dialog.,  cap.  34.     Lardner  dates  this  Dialogue  at  A.  D.  210;  some 
critics  have  assigned  it  to  an  earlier  period,  and  others  to  a  later,  even  to  the  year 


6Q  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

saying  that  Christians  threaten  all  but  themselves 
''  with  torments  that  never  shall  have  an  end."  ^ 

Clemens,  Tertullian,  and  Minucius  Felix,  in  treat- 
ing of  the  infernal  region  and  its  torments,  frequently 
adopt  the  language,  and  some  of  the  views,  of  the 
ancient  heathen  poets.  Ever  since  Justin  Martyr,  it 
had  been  a  common  opinion  among  the  orthodox 
fathers,  that  at  death  all  souls,  both  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked,  descended  to  the  Hades  of  the  Greeks,  or 
Iiifernum  of  the  Latins ;  which  was  a  subterranean 
world  consisting  of  two  general  divisions,  the  mansions 
of  the  just,  and  the  abodes  of  the  guilty.  Here  the 
separate  spirits  dwelt,  either  in  joy  or  suffering,  ac- 
cording to  their  cliiferent  characters  and  deserts  ;  un- 
dergoing various  courses  of  discipline  and  purification, 
as  was  thought  by  some  ;  or  fixed  in  their  respective 
stations,  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  approaching  gen- 
eral judgment,  as  was  represented  by  others.  Some 
of  the  fathers,^  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  believed 
in  the  conscious  existence  of  the  soul  in  the  interval 
between  death  and  the  general  judgment;  but  the 
latter  event,  they  all  agreed,  was  near  at  hand,  when 
the  world  should  be  destroyed  by  fire,  Tertullian  says, 
in  the  end  of  his  own  age. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  it  may  be  proper  to 
give,  as  far  as  practicable,  a  succinct  account  of  the 
state  of  Universalism  at  the  period  now  under  con- 
sideration. It  appears,  then,  that  of  the  orthodox 
Christians  some  believed  the  eventual  salvation  of  all 
mankind,  after  a  future  punishment  for  the  wicked ; 

1  Minucii  Fel.  Dialog.,  cap.  11. 

3  Namely,  Tatian,  and  perhaps  Miuuciua  Felix. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  67 

while  others,  again,  held  the  doctrine  of  endless 
misery.  This  diversity  of  opinion,  however,  oc- 
casioned no  divisions,  no  controversies,  nor  contentions 
among  them ;  and  both  sentiments  existed  together  in 
the  church  without  reproach.  If  we  may  hazard  a 
conjecture,  the  orthodox  had  not,  generally,  any  fixed 
opinion  on  the  subject.  That  there  was  a  future  state 
of  sufiering,  they  all  agreed ;  but  whether  it  were 
endless,  or  would  terminate  in  annihilation,  or  whether 
it  would  result  in  a  general  restoration,  were  probably 
points  which  few  inquired  into.  Such,  we  may  sup- 
pose, was  the  case  with  the  orthodox  churches. 

But  we  must  not  here  fors^et  the  Universalists  amono^ 
the  Gnostic  Christians.  The  Basilidians,  Carpocra- 
tians,  and  Valentinians  were  now  thinly  scattered*  over 
all  Christendom,  and  abounded  in  some  places,  par- 
ticularly in  Egypt  and  the  adjacent  countries.  Though 
they  agreed  with  the  Universalists  among  the  ortho- 
dox, in  the  simple  fact  of  the  ultimate  salvation  of  all 
souls,  yet  their  denial  of  the  resurrection  and  of  a  fu- 
ture judgment,  their  views  concerning  the  creation  of 
this  world,  and,  in  short,  the  mass  of  Oriental  fables, 
which  they  held  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  Gnos- 
tics, deprived  them  of  all  intercourse  with  their  breth- 
ren, except  as  opponents.  They  were  Gnostics,  and 
the  others  were  Orthodox ;  these  were  the  terms  of 
distinction.  As  Universalism,  on  either  side,  was  not 
a  subject  of  abuse,  so  it  was  not  an  occasion  for  special 
favor  and  friendship ;  and  the  striking  difierence  be- 
tween their  views,  on  almost  every  particular  in  the 
whole  circle  of  divinity,  occasioned  a  perpetual  alter- 
cation, in  which  the  few  instances   of  their  mutual 


68  THE  ANCIENT  HISTOKY 


agreement  were  overlooked  or  forgotten.  The  entire 
body  of  the  orthodox,  whether  Universalists  or  not, 
stood  in  uniform  array  against  the  Gnostics  of  all 
kinds ;  and  these,  in  their  turn,  united  their  various 
sects  in  the  struggle  against  their  common  adver- 
saries. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  69 


CHAPTER    IV. 

ORIGEN. 

Meanwhile,  the  attention  of  the  Christian  world 
was  directed  to  an  extraordinary  genius  who 
had  arisen  in  the  church.  The  name  of  Ori- 
igen  Adamantius  had  awakened  an  interest  among 
heathens  as  well  as  believers,  from  Egypt  and  Greece 
eastward  to  the  remotest  provinces  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire. As  a  doctor  in  the  chm'ch,  and  as  a  philosopher  ^ 
among  the  learned,  he  stood  alone,  without  either  rival 
or  competitor,  and  enjoyed,  while  living,  such  a  repu- 
tation as  few,  in  any  age,  have  ever  acquired. 

It  was  about  the  year  230,  that  he  published,  at  Al- 
exandria, among  other  works,  his  books  Of  Pnnciples, 
in  which  he  advocated,  at  considerable  length,  the 
doctrine  of  Universal  Salvation.  This  work  has 
come  down  to  us  only  in  the  Latin  translation  by 
Rufinus,  who  altered  it  in  many  places,  especially  in 
what  related  to  the  Trinity,  in  order  to  accommodate 
its  doctrine  to  the  faith  of  the  fourth  century.     This 


1  He  became  a  philosopher,  as  many  a  one  does,  not  by  original  discoveries,  nor 
by  his  own  investigations  into  the  nature  of  things;  but  by  a  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  the  pliilosopliic  principles  and  maxims  he  had  learned  from  his  precep- 
tors, and  by  his  surprising,  though  not  always  happy,  readiness  in  illustrating  and 
tracing  them,  and  in  accommodating  them  to  every  case  and  subject  which  occurred. 
In  one  word,  he  was  a  philosopher  of  the  schools,  not  of  nature.  Mosheim  (De 
Reb.  Christian,  ante  Constant.,  pp.611,  612)  has  drawn  his  character,  as  a  phi- 
losopher, in  strong,  but  not  unfaithful  colors. 


70  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

circumstance  throws  a  shade  of  uncertainty,  in  some 
respects,  upon  the  original  character  of  the  treatise. 
But  that  it  contained,  in  its  first,  as  well  as  in  its 
present  state,  the  doctrine  in  view,  is  beyond  a  ques- 
tion ;  since  ancient  writers,^  who  lived  while  the  genu- 
ine Greek  copies  were  yet  extant,  referred  to  them, 
and  quoted  their  language,  for  the  purpose  of  exciting 
the  indignation,  or  calling  forth  the  anathema  of  the 
church,  against  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  author, 
for  having  asserted  the  restoration  of  every  fallen,  in- 
tellisrent  creature. 

Taking,  then,  the  translation  of  Rufinus  for  our  au- 
thority, where  we  can  obtain  no  better,  it  appears 
that  Origen  introduced  the  doctrine  of  Universalism 
and  that  of  the  Pre-existence  of  souls,  together: 
"Whoever,"  said  he,  "would  read  and  acquaint  him- 
self with  these  subjects,  so  difficult  to  be  understood, 
should  possess  a  mature  and  well-instructed  under- 
standing. For  if  he  be  not  accustomed  to  such  top- 
ics, they  may  appear  to  him  vain  and  useless ;  or  if 
his  mind  be  already  established  in  opposite  sentiments, 
he  may  hastily  suppose,  through  his  own  prejudice, 
that  these  are  heretical  and  contrary  to  the  faith  of  the 
church.  Indeed,  they  are  advanced  by  us  with  much 
hesitation,  and  more  in  the  way  of  investigating  and 
discussing  them  than  as  pronouncing  them  certain  and 
indisputable. 

"The  end  and  consummation  of  the  world  will 
take  place,  when  all  shall  be  subjected  to  punishments 
proportioned  to  their  several  sins  ;  and  how  long  each 
one  shall  suffer,  in  order  to  receive  his  deserts,  God 

1  Namely,  Jerome,  Justinian,  etc. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  71 

only  knows.     But  we  suppose  that  the  goodness  of 
God,  through  Christ,  will  certainly  restore  all  crea- 
tures into  one  final  state ;    his  very  enemies  being 
overcome  and  subdued.     For  thus  saith  the  Scripture  : 
The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand,  until  1  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool,     (Ps. 
ex.  1.)     To  the  same  purport,  but  more  clearly,  the 
apostle  Paul  says  that  Christ  must  reign  till  he  hath 
put  all  enemies  under  his  feet.     But  if  there  be  any 
doubt  what  is  meant  hy  putting  enemies  under  his  feet, 
let  us  hear  the  apostle  still  further,  who  says,  for  all 
things  must  be  subjected  to  him,     (1  Cor.  xv.)     What, 
then,  is  that  subjection,  with  which  all  things  must  be 
subdued  to  Christ?     I  think  it  to  be  that  with  which 
we  ourselves  desire  to  be  subdued  to  him ;    and  with 
which  also  the  apostles  and  all  the  saints  who  have 
followed  Christ  have  been  subdued  to  him.     For  the 
very  expression,  subjected  to  Christ,  denotes  the  salva- 
tion of  those  who  are  subjected :  as  David  says,  shall 
not  my  soul  be  subjected  to  God?  for  from  him  is  my 
salvation,     (Ps.  Ixii.  1.) 

"Such,  then,  being  the  final  result  of  things,  that 
all  enemies  shall  be  subdued  to  Christ,  death  the  last 
enemy  be  destroyed,  and  the  kingdom  be  delivered  up 
to  the  Father,  by  Christ ;  let  us,  with  this  view  before 
us,  now  turn  and  contemplate  the  beginning  of  things. 
Now,  the  beginning  always  resembles  the  end  ;  and  as 
there  vsdll  be  one  common  end  or  result  to  all,  so  we 
should  believe  that  all  had  one  common  beginning. 
In  other  words,  that  as  the  great  variety  of  characters 
and  diflerent  orders  of  beings  which  now  exist,  will, 
through  the  goodness  of  God,  their  subjection  to  Jesus 


72  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Christ,  and  the  unity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  finally 
restored  to  one  and  the  same  state  ;  so  were  they  all 
originally  created  in  one  common  condition,  resembling 
that  into  which  they  are  eventually  to  be  recalled.  All 
who  are,  at  last,  to  bow  the  knee  to  Jesus  Christ,  in 
token  of  subjection,  —  that  is,  all  who  are  in  heaven, 
all  on  earth,  and  all  under  the  earth  (by  which  three 
terms  is  comprehended  the  whole  intelligent  creation) , 
—  proceeded,  at  first,  from  that  one  common  state  ;  but 
as  virtue  was  not  immutably  fixed  in  them,  as  in  God, 
they  came  to  indulge  difierent  passions,  and  to  cherish 
difierent  princij)les.  They  were  therefore  assigned 
to  the  various  ranks  and  conditions  they  now  hold,  as 
the  reward  or  punishment  of  their  respective  deserts,*'  ^ 
etc.,  etc.  The  same  subject  he  introduces  repeatedly, 
with  various  illustrations,  in  the  course  of  this  work. 
Our  author  was,  at  this  time,  about  forty-five  years 
old.  From  his  childhood,  the  greatest  expectations 
had  been  entertained  of  him ;  and  in  his  case,  ma- 
ture years  did  not  disappoint  the  hopes  which  preco- 
cious i^enius  had  inspired.     Orii^en,  after- 

A.  D.  185  to  203.  "  .1 

wards  surnamed  Adamantius,  was  born 
in  the  city  of  Alexandria,  a.  d.  185  or  186.  Under 
his  father,  Leonidas,  he  was,  while  very  young,  well 
instructed  in  all  the  rudiments  of  learning,  and  assidu- 
ously trained  to  the  study  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
Of  these,  it  was  his  daily  task  to  commit  a  portion  to 
memory  ;  but  with  his  characteristic  passion  for  specu- 
lative inquiry,  he  refused  to  be  content  with  their 
obvious  meaning,  and  often  perplexed  his  father  by 

1  Origen,  De  Principiis,  lib.  i.,  cap.  6.    N.  B.  —  The  reader  will  find  our  author's 
notion  of  pre-existence  more  plainly  described  in  this  chapter  beginning  on  page  79. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  73 

an  inquisitive  desire  after  a  hidden,  mysterious  sense 
of  the  passages  which  struck  his  attention.  This 
imaginary  sense  was  then  the  great  object  of  investi- 
gation among  all  who  aspired  to  superior  attainments 
in  religious  knowledge ;  and  therefore  his  son's  in- 
quiries, at  so  early  an  age,  were  hailed  by  Leonidas 
with  secret  rapture,  though  he  seemingly  checked  his 
too  manly  researches,  and  admonished  him  to  confine 
his  thoughts  to  subjects  more  within  the  reach  of  his 
infantile  powers. 

When  a  little  more  advanced  in  years,  Origen  was 
sent  to  the  Catechetical  School,  where  he  studied  di- 
vinity under  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  Here  his  pur- 
suits were  at  length  interrupted,  in  the  seventeenth 
year  of  his  age,  by  the  persecution  under  Severus ; 
which  began  at  Alexandria  in  a.  d.  202,  and  soon 
obliged  his  master  to  flee  from  the  city.  His  father 
was  seized  and  imprisoned  for  his  religion  ;  and  many 
others  shared  the  same  fate.  But,  undismayed  by  the 
gathering  dangers,  the  eager  spirit  of  the  youth  con- 
templated them  with  the  strange  delight  of  an  enthu- 
siast. He  would  have  thrown  himself  into  the  hands 
of  the  persecutors,  in  hope  of  obtaining  the  prize  of 
martp'dom,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  his  mother, 
who  hid  his  clothes,  and  thus,  by  the  sense  of  shame, 
confined  him  to  his  house.  Fearing  that  his  father's 
constancy  would  yield  to  anxiety  for  his  family's  wel- 
fare, he  entreated  him,  by  letter,  to  persevere:  "Be 
steadfast,  my  father,"  said  he,  "and  take  heed  that 
you  do  not  renounce  your  profession  on  our  account." 
Animated  by  his  son's  exhortation,  he  remained  in- 


74  THE   ANCIENT  HISTOKY 

flexible  to  the  last,  and  courageously  sufTered  mar- 
tyrdom. 

On  the  execution  of  the  father,  the  estate  was  con- 
fiscated, and  the  family  reduced  at  once  to  extreme 
poverty ;  but  a  rich  lady  of  Alexandria,  either  from 
compassion  or  respect,  took  Origen  into  her  own 
house,  and  freely  gave  him  a  support.  There  lived 
with  her,  at  the  same  time,  a  famous  heretic,  whom 
she  had  adopted  as  her  son,  and  who  held  public  lec- 
tures under  her  patronage.  With  him,  though  Origen 
was  obliged  by  his  situation  to  converse,  yet  not  even 
gi'atitude  to  their  common  patroness  could  overcome 
his  constant,  perhaps  bigoted,  refusal  to  unite  in 
prayers  ;  and  he  took  every  method  to  express  his  ab- 
horrence of  heresy,  little  thinking  that  future  ages 
would  repay  this  detestation  twofold  upon  his  own 
head.  Whether  his  benefactress  began  to  withdraw 
her  favor,  or  whether  he  resolved  of  himself  to  spare 
her  charity,  it  appears  that  in  about  a  year  he  threw 
himself  upon  his  own  exertions  for  a  livelihood.  Hav- 
ing been  engaged,  ever  since  his  father's  death,  in  the 
study  of  the  sciences,  he  now  (a.  d.  203)  opened  a 
grammar  school,  from  which  he  had  the  prospect  of 
deriving  a  support.  But  his  attention  was  immedi- 
ately called  to  other  subjects  ;  some  of  the  heathens 
applying  to  him  for  religious  instruction,  he  gladly  ac- 
ceded to  their  request ;  the  number  of  his  scholars  and 
converts  increased  ;  and  Demetrius,  bishop  at  Alexan- 
dria, appointed  him,  though  but  eighteen  years  old,  to 
the  care  either  of  the  great  Catechetical  School,  or  per- 
haps, at  first,  to  a  more  private  one  of  the  same  kind. 
Placed  in  a  station  so  congenial  with  his  taste,  all 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  75 

his  talents  and  attainments  were  devoted  to  the  dis- 
charsre  of  its  duties.     In  order  to  abstract 

,   .  .  ^  ^  T  n  A.  D.  203  to  216. 

his  attention  from  other  studies,  as  well  as 
to  secure  himself  a  maintenance,  he  sold  that  part  of 
his  library  which  treated  of  science  and  literature, 
and  received  from  the  purchaser  an  obligation  to  sup- 
ply him  daily  with  foin^  oboli,  about  five  pence,  as  an 
income  for  his  subsistence.  From  this  period,  his  life 
was  one  of  the  most  rigid  abstinence  and  laborious 
study.  The  day  he  spent  partly  in  fasting  and  other 
religious  exercises,  and  partly  in  the  duties  of  his 
oflSlce ;  the  night  he  passed  in  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, reserving  a  little  time  for  sleep,  which  he  sel- 
dom took  in  bed,  and  generally  on  the  bare  ground. 
A  sort  of  monkish  austerity  had  grown  to  high  repute 
in  the  church ;  consequently,  Origen's  self-denial 
increased  the  fame  of  his  sanctity,  and  conspired, 
with  his  eloquence  and  extensive  learning,  to  draw 
from  every  quarter  a  great  number  of  disciples.  They 
did  not  dishonor  their  master.  Of  their  constancy  in 
the  faith,  he  soon  had  an  opportunity  of  witnessing 
a  full,  though  painful,  proof;  for,  in  a  furious 
persecution  which  some  of  the  Roman  magistrates 
set  on  foot  at  Alexandria,  several  of  his  scholars 
undauntedly  sealed  their  professions  with  their 
lives.  He  himself  was  often  attacked  with  showers 
of  stones,  while  going  to  the  place  of  execution  to 
exhort  and  encourage  the  martyrs  ;  and  as  no  dangers 
ever  deterred  him  from  this  practice,  the  exasperated 
heathens  at  length  beset  his  house,  and  obliged  him  to 
secrete  himself,  in  order  to  escape  their  rage.  About 
this  time,  a.  d.  206,  in  his  twenty-first  year,  the  ex- 


76  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

cessive  rigor  of  his  discipline  led  to  an  act  which 
became  an  occasion  of  self-regret,  and  of  much  re- 
proach, in  future  life  ;  understanding  our  Saviour  to 
recommend  emasculation,^  he  made  himself  a  eunuch, 
not  only  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake,  but  also 
from  prudential  considerations  ;  his  instructions  being 
sought  by  both  sexes.  Demetrius,  his  bishop,  ap- 
plauded it,  at  first,  as  an  act  of  the  greatest  Christian 
heroism;  though  he  afterwards  alleged  it  against 
him  as  an  inexcusable  offence. 

Such,  at  length,  was  the  increase  of  his  school,  that 
its  cares  engrossed  too  much  of  his  thoughts,  leaving 
him  no  time  for  reflection  and  improvement.  He 
therefore  committed  the  younger  pupils  to  his  friend 
Heraclas,  one  of  his  earliest  converts ;  and  employed 
the  leisure  which  this  arrangement  afforded  in  vari- 
ous studies  and  occupations.  He  applied  himself  to 
the  Hebrew,  a  language  then  but  little  known ;  next 
he  began,  it  is  thought,  that  astonishing  monument 
of  application  and  labor,  the  Hexajpla  or  Octapla,  a 
Polyglot  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  it  was,  perhaps, 
not  far  from  this  period  ^  that  he  attended  the  lectures 
•  of  the  ingenious  and  subtle  Ammonius  Saccas,  whose 
darling  study  it  was  to  harmonize  all  the  different  sys- 
tems of  philosophy  and  religion,  heathen  as  well  as 
Christian,  by  combining  their  leading  principles,  anrfeg 
by  rejecting  from  each,  or  turning  into  allegory,  what- 
ever was  absolutely  discordant  with  his  general  design. 
Under  him,  Origen  became  master  of  the  Platonic, 


1  Matt.  xix.  12. 

2  So  thinks  Lardncr ;  other  biographers,  however,  refer  his  attendance  at  the 
school  of  Ammonius  to  an  earlier  period. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  77 

P}i:hagorean,  Stoic,  and  Oriental  notions ;  which,  to- 
gether with  his  previous  acquirements,  rendered  him 
so  expert  in  the  whole  circle  of  ancient  literature  and 
science,  that  many  of  the  learned,  even  among  the 
heretics  and  the  heathens,  came  to  make  trial  of  his 
skill,  or  to  be  instructed  by  him.  Of  these,  there  was 
one  who  preserved  his  own  name  from  oblivion,  by 
the  zeal  with  which  he  assisted  Origen,  and  the  suc- 
cess with  which  he  drew  forth  his  talents.  The  name 
of  Ambrosius  will  frequently  occur  in  this  biography. 
He  was  a  wealthy  nobleman  of  Alexandria,  who  had 
followed  the  Valentinian  and  Marcionite  lieresies  ;  but 
on  being  convinced,  by  attending  the  school  of  Origen 
(a.  d.  212),  he  joined  the  orthodox  church,  and  be- 
came the  great  patron  and  benefactor  of  his  master. 
Not  far  from  the  year  213,  Origen's  curiosity  led  him 
to  visit  Kome.  Here,  however,  he  tarried  but  a  short 
time,  and  then  returned  to  Alexandria.  Soon  after- 
wards he  went  into  Arabia,  on  the  request  of  some 
leader  of  the  wandering  tribes,  who  had  earnestly  en- 
treated him  to  come  and  instruct  him  in  the  Christian 
religion.  Scarcely  was  he  re-established  in  Alexan- 
dria, when  the  Emperor  Caracalla  (a.  d.  216)  threw 
the  whole  city  into  consternation  by  an  indiscriminate 
massacre,  in  revenge  for  the  jeers  and  scoffs  he  had 
■Received  from  some  of  the  inhabitants  ;  and  to  escape 
the  terrible  confusion,  Origen  retired  to  Cesarea  in 
Palestine.  Here,  the  bishops  of  the  province  per- 
suaded him,  though  never  ordained,  to  expound  the 
Scriptures  publicly  to  the  people. 

This    appointment,    so    honorable    to 

1  ,1  n  .  A.  D.  216  to  230. 

Origen,  was  but  the  forerunner  of  an  in- 


78  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

veterate,  and  at  length  fatal,  persecution  from  his  own 
bishop  at  Alexandria.  Demetrius  instantly  addressed  a 
letter  of  complaint  to  his  brethren  in  Palestine,  assert- 
ing that  it  was  a  thing  unheard  of,  that  a  layman 
should  preach  in  the  presence  of  bishops ;  but 
Alexander,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  Theoctistus, 
Bishop  of  Cesarea,  answered  him,  by  showing  that  the 
practice  had  been  sanctioned  in  the  church  by  several 
precedents.  Demetrius,  however,  remained  dis- 
satisfied, and  sent  some  deacons  to  Origen,  with  an 
order  for  his  immediate  return  to  Alexandria.  He 
came  accordingly  and  resumed  the  care  of  his  school. 
This  he  seems,  to  have  prosecuted,  in  quiet,  for  five  or 
six  years ;  when  an  event  occurred,  which  serves  to 
show,  at  once,  the  superiority  of  his  reputation,  and 
the  influence  it  had  in  recommending  Christianity  to 
the  favorable  notice  of  the  great.  The  Princess 
Mammaga,  mother  of  Alexander,  the  reigning  emperor, 
sent  for  Origen  to  visit  her  at  Antioch,  and  furnished 
a  military  guard  to  escort  him  thither.  Having  given 
her  a  general  illustration  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  he 
returned,  with  her  permission,  to  his  charge  at 
Alexandria. 

At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Ambrosius,  he  now 
began  his  Comynentaries.  He  was  furnished,  by  this 
devoted  patron,  with  every  convenience  for  the  pur- 
pose :  seven  notaries  stood  ready  to  record  as  he 
dictated ;  and  a  number  of  transcribers  received  their 
hasty  notes,  and  wrote  them  out  in  a  plain  and 
elegant  hand.  In  this  manner  he  was  engaged  till 
A.  D.  228  ;  when  he  was  sent  into  Achaia,  on  some 
ecclesiastical  affairs,  with  letters  of  recommendation 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  79 

from  Demetrius.  Passing  through  Palestine  on  his 
journey,  he  was  ordained  Presbyter,  by  the  bishops 
of  that  province.  Demetrius  warmly  resented  this 
procedure  of  foreign  prelates,  without  his  leave  ;  and 
wrote  letters  against  Origen  to  the  churches,  declaring 
him  disqualified  for  the  priesthood,  by  the  act  per- 
formed in  his  youth,  and  alleging  that  it  was  unlawful 
to  ordain  the  Principal  of  the  Alexandrian  School, 
without  his  knowledge  and  concurrence.  In  the  midst 
of  this  ferment,  Origen,  having  accomplished  his  busi- 
ness in  Greece,  returned  to  Alexandria,  finished  the 
first  ^\^  books  of  his  Commentaries  on  St.  John, 
those  on  the  La^nentations ,  on  some  of  the  Psalms, 
and  on  part  of  Genesis,  and  published  them,  a.  d.  230, 
together  with  his  work  entitled  Stromata,  and  his 
book  Of  Principles. 

These  were,  perhaps,  his  first  publications.  From 
the  last-mentioned  work,  we  have  already  seen  that, 
in  connection  with  Universalism,  he  held  the  doctrine 
of  Pre-existence.  His  opinion  was,  that  in  the  past 
ages  of  eternity,  God  created,  at  once,  all  the  rational 
minds  which  have  ever  existed,  whether  of  angels  or 
men,  gave  them  the  same  nature  and  the  same  powers, 
and  placed  them  all  in  one  celestial  state.  Accord- 
ingly, they  were  all,  at  first,  exactly  alike  in  rank, 
capacity,  and  character.  But  as  they  all  had  perfect 
freedom  of  will,  they  did  not  long  continue  in  this 
state  of  equality ;  for  while  some  improved  them- 
selves more  or  less,  others  degenerated  proportionally, 
till  an  infinite  diversity  of  character  and  condition 
began  to  take  place  among  them.  In  consequence  of 
this,   the   Almighty   at    length   formed  the   material 


80  THE  ANCIENT  HISTORY 

universe  out  of  pre-existent  matter,  and  appointed 
those  spirits  to  different  ranks  and  conditions  in  it, 
according  to  their  respective  deserts  ;  elevating  some 
to  the  angelic  order,  consigning  others  to  the  infernal 
abodes  as  demons,  and  sending  the  intermediate  class, 
as  occasion  might  require,  into  human  bodies.  Origen 
supposed,  also,  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  were 
animated  by  certain  spirits  who  had  attained  to  great 
moral  splendor,  dignity,  and  power,  and  who  might, 
with  justice,  claim  those  bright  and  glorious  spheres 
as  their  own  appropriate  bodies. 

As  all  these  intelligent  beings,  whatever  their  char- 
acter and  station,  still  retain  their  original  freedom  of 
will,  and  are  therefore  capable  of  returning  from  their 
former  transgressions,  of  forfeiting  their  honors,  or  of 
rising  to  still  higher  degrees  of  excellence,  their  pres- 
ent conditions  are  not  only  the  allotments  of  retribu- 
tive justice  for  the  past,  but  are  also  states  of  discipline 
adapted  to  reclaim  the  degenerate,  and  to  encom^age 
the  virtuous.  To  this  end,  indeed,  are  all  the  appoint- 
ments of  providence,  and  all  the  administrations  of  the 
divine  government,  constantly  directed ;  and  justice 
itself  steadily  pursues  the  same  gracious  design^  in 

1  Many  of  the  Gnostics  held  that  Justice  is  opposed  to  Goodness,  and  that  it  is 
therefore  an  attribute  of  the  stern  Creator  of  this  world,  and  not  of  the  benevolent 
Deity.  Against  these,  Origen  says :  "  Let  them  consider  this :  if  Goodness  is  a 
virtue,  as  doubtless  they  will  confess  it  to  be,  what  will  they  say  of  Justice  ?  They 
will  not  be  so  stupid,  I  think,  as  to  deny  that  Justice  is  a  virtue.  If  Goodness  then 
is  a  virtue,  and  Justice  also  a  virtue,  thero  is  no  question  but  that  Justice  is  Good- 
ness. But  if  they  still  assert  that  Justice  is  not  Goodness,  it  remains  that  it  is 
either  evil  or  indifferent.  Now,  I  suppose  it  would  be  folly  to  reply  to  any  who 
should  Bay  that  Justice  is  evil;  for  how  can  that  be  evil,  which  renders  bless- 
ing to  the  good,  as  they  themselves  confess  that  Justice  does  ?  But  if  they  assert 
that  it  is  indifferent  [neither  good  nor  evil],  then  it  follows  th.-it,  together  with 
Justice,  every  other  virtue,  as  sobriety,  prudence,  etc.,  must  be  considered  in- 
diflerent.    And  how  theu  should  we  understand  St.  Paul,  who  says,  If  there  he 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  81 

all  its  severe,  but  salutary,  inflictions.  Such  are  the 
views  we  may  gather  from  Origen's  books  Of  Prin- 
ciples, and  his  other  works  published  at  this  period. 

The  language  in  which  he  defines,  or  involves,  his 
notions  of  the  Trinity  is  not  always  such  as  would 
now  be  judged  orthodox,  though  it  was  probably  re- 
garded as  sufficiently  so  in  his  own  age.  Of  the  fall 
of  man  he  has  no  other  view  than  it  consisted  in  the 
descent  of  the  celestial  soul  to  the  prison  of  an  earthly 
body,  in  consequence  of  its  transgressions ;  it  is 
evident  that  he  made  no  distinction  between  the 
natural  state  of  Adam,  and  that  in  which  all  mankind 
have  since  been  born.  He  holds  that  none  can  ever 
be  happy,  or  miserable,  but  by  the  right  or  wrong  use 
of  their  own  free-wills ;  and  that  even  what  are  now 

any  virtue,  any  praise,  think  on  these  things  which  ye  have  both  learned  and  re- 
ceived, and  heard,  and  seen  in  me  f  (Phil.  iv.  8,  9.)  Let  them,  therefore,  learn,  by 
Bearching  the  Scriptures,  what  are  the  several  virtues.  And  when  they  allege 
that  the  God  who  rewards  every  one  according  to  his  deserts,  renders  evil 
to  the  evil,  let  them  not  conceal  the  principle :  that  as  the  sick  must  be  cured  by 
harsh  medicines,  so  God  administers,  for  the  purpose  of  emendation,  what  for  the 
present  appears  to  produce  pain.  They  do  not  consider  what  is  written  concern- 
ing the  hope  of  those  who  perished  in  the  deluge ;  of  which  hope,  St.  Peter  says, 
in  his  first  Epistle,  that  Christ  was  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the 
spirit;  by  which  also  he  went  and  preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison,  which  some- 
time were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering  of  God  waited  in  the  days  of 
Noah,  while  the  ark  was  a  preparing,  etc.  (1  Pet.  iii.  18, 19,  20.)  Let  them  also 
consider  the  instances  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah :  as  they  believe  the  prophecies  are 
the  word  of  that  God,  the  Creator,  who  is  said  to  have  rained  fire  and  brimstone 
upon  them ;  what,  we  ask,  does  the  prophet  Ezekiel  say  of  them  ?  Sodom,  says 
he,  shall  be  restored  to  its  former  state.  (Ezek.  xvi.  55.)  Now,  he  who  afflicts 
those  who  deserve  punishment,  does  he  not  afliict  them  for  their  good  ?  He  says 
also  to  Chaldea,  thou  hast  coals  of  fire;  sit  upon  them;  they  will  be  a  help  to  thee. 
(Isa.  xlvii.  14,  15.)  Let  them  also  hear  what  is  said,  in  the  Psalms,  of  those  who 
fell  in  the  desert :  when  he  had  slain  them,  then  they  sought  him.  (Ps.  Ixxviii.  34.) 
It  is  not  said,  that  when  some  were  slain,  the  rest  sought  God ;  but  that  such  was 
the  end  of  those  who  were  slain,  that,  when  dead,  they  sought  him."  De  Princip., 
hb.  ii.,  cap.  5,  §  3. 

N.  B.  — Whenever  the  early  fathers  quote  from  the  Old  Testament,  they  make 
use  of  the  Septuagint  version,  which,  in  many  passages,  difters  considerably  from 
our  translation. 


82  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

called  the  gracious  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are 
imparted  to  creatures  only  in  proportion  to  their 
previous  deserts.  After  death,  the  souls  of  the  faith- 
ful may  perhaps  remain  awhile  upon  earth,  under  a 
course  of  purification ;  then  be  taken  into  the  air,  and 
at  length  elevated,  by  degrees,  to  the  highest  heaven. 
In  the  resurrection,  mankind  will  come  forth  with 
bodies,  not  of  gross  earthly  matter,  but  of  an  aerial 
substance  ;  and  then  the  whole  human  race,  both  good 
and  bad,  will  be  subjected  to  a  fiery  ordeal  in  the 
general  conflagration,  with  difierent  degrees  of  pain, 
according  to  their  moral  purity  or  corruption.  The 
righteous  will  quickly  pass  through  this  trial  into  the 
enjoyments  of  heaven ;  but  the  wicked  will  then  be 
condemned  to  the  punishments  of  hell,  which  consist 
both  of  inflicted  pain  and  of  the  remorse  of  conscience. 
These  sufferings,  though  he  calls  them  everlasting,'^ 
Origen  held,  would  be  apportioned,  in  length  and 
severity,  to  every  one's  wickedness  and  hardness  of 
heart :  for  some,  they  would  be  shorter  and  more 
moderate ;  but  for  others,  especially  for  the  devil, 
they  would  necessarily  be  rendered  intense,  and  pro- 
tracted to  an  immense  duration,  in  order  to  overcome 
the  obstinacy  and  corruption  of  the  guilty  suflferers. 
At  last,  however,  the  whole  intelligent  creation  should 
be  purified,  and  God  become  all  in  all.^ 


1  Proem.,  lib.  De  Principiis,  and  lib.  ii.,  cap.  10,  §§1  and  3. 

2  Huet,  Du  Pin,  and  others,  represent  Origen  to  have  held  a  perpetual  change 
of  character  and  condition  among  all  classes  of  rational  creatures;  so  that  not 
only  the  damned  will,  in  time,  ascend  to  happiness,  but  also  the  blest  may,  at 
length,  fall  into  sin  and  misery;  and  joy  as  well  as  suffering  come  to  an  end.  It  is 
true,  he  holds  the  perpetual  freedom  of  the  will,  and  seems  to  admit,  in  conse- 
quence, the  probability  of  a  fall  hereafter,  from  heaven,  at  least  in  individual 
cases.    But  if  I  do  not  greatly  mistake,  he  contemplates  a  distant  period,  beyond 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  83 

But  nothing  is  more  remarkable,  in  these  early 
publications,  than  the  rule  they  set  forth  for  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture.  We  have  already  seen 
that  the  allegorical  method  had  long  been  in  vogue  ; 
and  that  it  had  now  become  almost  universal. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Origen  pursued  this  farther 
than  even  his  predecessors,  and  reduced  it  to  a  sort  of 
system,  unequalled  in  absurdity,  except  by  that  of  the 


all  revolutions,  when  every  intelligent  nature  will  have  become  so  thoroughly 
taught  by  experience  and  observation,  and  so  intimately  united  to  God,  as  to  be  in 
no  more  danger  of  defection.  See  De.  Princip.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  3,  §  5,  and  lib.  iii.,  cap. 
6,  §6. 

Origen  expressly  discusses  this  question  in  the  fifth  book  of  his  Commentaries 
on  Romans,  vol.  vi.  pp.  407 — 413,  Lommatzsch's  ed.  In  accordance  with  his 
whole  system,  he  maintained  an  indestructible  freedom  of  the  will,  and  with  the 
great  mass  of  Christians,  then  and  now,  believed  that  angels  had  sinned  in  heaven, 
even  ''  he  who  dwelt  among  cherubims,  and  was  employed  in  the  midst  of  resplen- 
dent gems,  and  was  clothed  with  the  ornament  of  every  virtue,  and  for  the 
splendor  of  his  glory  was  called  Lucifer,  the  son  of  the  morning."  Sin,  then, 
with  free,  finite  beings  must  always  be  hypothetically  possible,  since  virtue  is  in 
its  very  nature  mutable,  and  the  soul,  as  it  must  ever  be  able  to  turn  from  vice  to 
virtue,  so  also  from  virtue  to  vice.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Origen  distinctly 
maintained  that  the  souls  of  the  redeemed  would  not  sin.  ''  We  assert,"  said  he, 
"  that  the  power  of  the  cross  of  Christ  and  of  his  death,  suflPered  once  in  the  end 
of  the  world,  is  sufficient  for  the  cure  and  health,  not  only  of  the  present  and  future, 
but  even  of  past  ages,  and  not  only  for  our  human  race,  but  even  for  the  celes- 
tial orders  and  powers ;  for  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Christ, 
by  the  blood  of  his  cross,  has  reconciled  not  only  the  things  which  are  in  the  earth 
but  also  the  things  which  are  in  heaven."  To  prove  that,  though  free,  the  soul 
will  not  run  into  sin,  he  quotes  the  declaration  of  the  apostle,  that  Love  never  fails. 
"For  if  the  soul  shall  rise  to  that  degree  of  perfection,  so  that  it  will  love  God 
with  all  its  heart,  and  all  its  powers,  and  all  its  mind,  and  its  neighbor  as  itself, 
what  place  will  there  be  for  sin  ?"  He  also  quotes  the  language  of  St.  John,  that 
he  who  dwells  in  love  dwells  in  God,  and  "  therefore,"  he  adds,  '•  that  love  which 
alone  is  greater  than  all  will  preserve  omnem  creaturam  (every  creature,  or  the 
whole  creation)  from  falling.  Then  shall  God  be  all  in  all."  He  also  quotes  St. 
Paul's  words:  "Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God?"  etc.,  and  con- 
cludes that  if  all  these  things  were  unable  to  alienate  the  soul  from  God,  much  less 
would  the  freedom  of  the  will.  The  angels  sinned  before  the  love  of  God  had 
been  manifested  in  Christ,  but  after  that  love  begins  to  be  shed  abroad  in  the 
heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  soul  is  bound  by  it  and  walks  in  its  light;  and  he 
closes  his  discussion  by  some  beautiful  illustrations  of  the  power  of  the  Christian 
conviction  that  we  are  dead  with  Christ,  and  believe  also  that  we  shall  live  with 
him.  — T.  J.  S. 


84  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

famous  Baron  Swedenborg.  To  the  sacred  writings 
in  general,  he  attributed  three  distinct  senses :  1,  the 
literal,  which  in  no  case  is  of  great  importance,  and 
sometimes  entirely  useless  ;  2,  the  moral,  superior  in 
value  to  the  former,  teaching  us  to  consider  every 
historical  account  as  an  allegorical  representation  of 
certain  virtues  or  vices  in  our  own  hearts ;  as,  when 
the  Scripture  relates  that  Joseph  being  dead,  the 
children  of  Israel  increased  in  number,  we  learn, ^  by 
the  moral  sense,  that  if  we  receive  the  death  of  Christ, 
our  spiritual  Joseph,  into  our  sinful  members,  the 
children  of  Israel,  that  is,  the  graces  of  the  spirit, 
will  be  multiplied  within  us ;  3 ,  the  mystical  or 
spiritual  sense,  the  most  excellent  of  all ;  by  which 
the  more  enlightened  can  trace  in  all  the  Scripture 
narratives,  of  whatever  sort,  a  latent  history  of  Christ's 
church ;  and  by  which  also  they  can  discover,  in  every 
account  of  earthly  things,  some  representations  of  that 
celestial,  invisible  world,  of  which  the  present  is  but 
a  faint  and  imperfect  image.  There,  souls  are  the 
inhabitants,  and  angels  the  rulers  ;  and  there  the  ideal 
regions  and  the  order  of  events  correspond,  in  some 
degree,  to  those  on  .earth.  Eidiculous  as  was  this 
system  of  interpretation,  it  met  the  taste  of  his  times  ; 
though,  even  then,  there  were  some  who  rejected  it, 
at  least,  in  part,  and  raised  their  feeble  voice  against 
its  extravagance.  But  they  themselves  often  ran  into 
other  notions  nearly  as  chimerical. 

While  Origen  was  engaged  in  preparing  and  pub- 


1  Homil.  i.  in  Exod.,  §  4.  I  have  taken  this  illustration  from  one  of  Origen'e  later 
■works ;  but  in  the  books  Of  PHnciples,  the  nature  and  use  of  the  moral  sense  are 
abundantly  explained. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  85 

lishing  the  works  now  mentioned,  the 
storm  which  his  bishop  had  raised 
against  him  continued,  increasing  in  violence. 
Wearied  out,  at  lenglh,  with  contention,  he  took  a 
private  and  final  leave  of  his  native  country  (a.  d. 
231),  and  retired  to  Palestine,  where  he  was  cordially 
received  by  his  old  friends,  Alexander  of  Jerusalem, 
and  Theoctistus  of  Cesarea.  Immediately  on  his  re- 
treat, Demetrius  assembled  all  the  Egyptian  bishops, 
and  such  of  the  presbyters  as  he  thought  in  his  own 
favor,  with  the  hope  of  procuring  the  condemnation 
of  his  victim.  In  this,  however,  he  was  disappointed : 
the  council  decreed  only  that  Origen  should  be 
deprived  of  his  office  in  the  Catechetical  School,  and 
of  the  privilege  of  teaching  at  Alexandria ;  but  that 
he  should  still  enjoy  his  character  of  presbyter.  This 
not  satisfying  his  ^vrath,  Demetrius  called  another 
council  (probably  in  a.  d.  232),  composed  of  such 
bishops  only  as  he  saw  fit  to  select  from  his  own 
province.  With  these  he  succeeded :  they  ordained 
that  Origeft  should  be  deposed  from  his  sacerdotal 
dignity,  and  excommunicated  from  the  church.  When 
this  sentence  was  thus  formally  passed  upon  him,  he 
could  not,  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  Constitution 
and  Canons,  be  received  in  any  church,  nor  by  any 
bishop,  under  the  Catholic  jurisdiction  ;  nevertheless, 
the  bishops  of  Arabia,  Palestine,  Phoenicia,  and 
Achaia,  his  personal  acquaintances,  hazarded  the 
exj^eriment  of  supporting  him,  at  the  expense  of  non- 
conformity to  the  established  regulations.  But  in  the 
West,  and  particularly  at  Rome,  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication was  readily  confirmed. 


86  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

That  it  was  not  for  error  in  doctrine  that  Origen 
was  condemned,  is  expressly  asserted  by  some  of  the 
ancients,^  and  evident  from  the  silence  of  all  the  rest. 
It  is  not  incredible,  indeed,  that  his  adversary  adopted 
the  usual  expedient  in  ecclesiastical  persecution,  and,  in 
order  to  increase  the  odium,  represented  some  opinions 
he  had  advanced,  as  worthy  of  reproof.  But  if  this 
were  the  case,  it  cannot  have  formed  a  prominent 
ground  in  the  prosecution,  since  there  is  no  trace  of 
it  left  in  all  antiquity.  ^¥hat  were  the  principal 
charges  alleged  against  him,  we  can  only  conjecture.^ 
The  consciences  of  an  angry  prelate,  and  his  select 
minions,  could  not  be  very  scrupulous  in  the  choicQ 
of  matter  for  condemnation  ;  and  it  is  thought  to  have 
related  only  to  some  informality  hi  his  ordination, 
and  to  some  disregard  of  the  customary  claims 
of  his  bishop.  Demetrius,  however,  did  not  long 
enjoy  his  revenge,  as  he  died,  probably,  this  year. 
After  his  decease,  the  rage  of  opposition  appeared  to 
subside ;  but  still  Origen  was  considered,  by  the 
Egyptian  Christians,  as  an  excommunicated  person ; 
and  such  was  their  respect  for  the  ecclesiastical 
canons,  that  the    sentence    of  Demetrius  was    never 

1  Jerome,  Apud.  Ruf.  Invect.  ii.,  inter  Hieronymi  Opera. 

2  As  for  the  story  we  find  in  Epiphanius  (Haeres.  Ixiv.  2),  that  before  Origen  left 
Alexandria,  he  consented  to  hold  incense  over  the  altar  in  honor  of  an  idol,  rather 
than  he  unnaturally  defiled  by  an  Ethiopian,  it  is  generally  thought  by  the 
moderns  to  have  been  one  of  Epiphanius's  fables,  or  perhaps  an  interpolation  in 
his  works.  Nicephorus  appears  to  have  taken  the  same  account,  with  some  altera- 
tion, from  Epiphanius.  Some  later  writer,  in  order  to  continue  the  story,  has 
forged  a  piece  entitled  The  Lamentation  of  Origen^  or  Origeii's  Repentance,  in 
which  he  is  made  to  bewail,  in  the  most  extravagant  manner,  his  having  sacrificed 
to  idols.  See  Uuct.  Origenian,  lib.  i.,  cap.  4,  §4,  and  Append,  ad.  lib.  iii.,  §8, 
Cave's  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  art.  Origen,  etc.  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Pati-um,  art. 
Origen,  note  n;  and  Mosheim,  De  lleb.  Christian,  ante  Constant,  p.  676.  The 
Lamentation  of  Origen  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Hanmer's  English  translation  of 
Eusebius,  Socrates,  and  Evagrius. 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  87 

revoked  by  his  successors,  Heraclas  and  Dionysius, 
though  they  had  been  disciples  of  Origen  (the  former, 
his  assistant) ,  and  though  they  both  still  retained  the 
greatest  veneration  and  the  warmest  affection  for  him. 
At  Cesarea  he  was  again  appointed  to  expound  the 
Scriptures  to  the  people ;  and  the  bishops  of  Pales- 
tine, themselves,  often  sat  under  his  instructions,  as 
though  he  were  their  master.  This  city,  at  that  time 
the  largest  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  capital  of  one 
of  its  divisions,  might  be  classed,  perhaps,  with  the 
Roman  cities  of  the  third  rank  in  Asia,  inferior  not 
only  to  Antioch,  the  queen  of  the  East,  but  also  to 
Ephesus  and  Smyrna.  It  rose  on  a  gentle  acclivity 
from  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  about  midway 
between  Joppa  and  Ptolemais ;  and  its  white  marble 
buildings,  its  magnificent  amphitheatre,  and,  higher 
than  all  the  rest,  its  splendid  heathen  temple,  met  the 
view  of  the  distant  voyager  as  he  coasted  along,  or 
approached  the  harbor.^  Here  Origen  opened  a 
school,  somewhat  on  the  plan  of  that  at  Alexandria, 
for  the  study  of  literature  and  religion  ;  and  his  fame 
soon  drew  scholars  both  from  the  adjacent  province 
and  from  remoter  regions.  From  Cappadocia  he  re- 
ceived Firmilian,  who  afterwards  returned  to  his  na- 
tive country  and  became  the  most  eminent  bishop 
there.  Still  farther  to  the  north,  from  Pontus  on  the 
shore  of  the  Euxine,  came  Gregory  Thaumaturgus 
and  his  brother  Athenodorus. 

Meanwhile,  Origen  proceeded  with  his  Oommenta- 
ries  on  St.  John's  Gospel,  and  began  those  on  Isaiah 

1  Josephus  Antiq.,  book  xv.,  chap.  9,  §  6,  and  Reland.  Palaest.  Illustrat.,  lib.  iii., 
art.  Cesarea.    The  city  was  sixty-two  miles  north-west  of  Jerusalem. 


83  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

and  Ezekiel.  Thus  constantly  engaged  either  in  his 
school,  or  in  preaching,  or  writing,  he  seems  to 
have  passed  about  four  years  in  quiet,  till  a.  d.  235  ; 
when  the  barbarous  Maximin,  on  coming  to  the 
throne,  instituted  a  persecution  against  the  more  dis- 
tinguished of  the  Christians,  out  of  a  fearful  suspicion 
that  they  cherished,  with  too  grateful  a  regard,  the 
memory  of  his  murdered  predecessor.  Among  oth- 
ers, Protoctetus,  a  presbyter  of  Cesarea,  and  the  gen- 
erous Ambrosius,  were  thrown  into  prison,  and  tor- 
tured with  various  cruelties.  To  them  Origen  wrote 
and  dedicated  his  book  On  Martyrdom  ;  but  concealed 
himself,  the  meanwhile,  in  a  private  ftimily  in  the  city, 
and  sometime  afterwards  retired  across  the  seas  to 
Athens.  Here  he  finished  his  Commentaries  on  Eze- 
kiel, and  went  forward  with  those  upon  Canticles. 
From  this  place  it  is  thought  he  made  a  visit  to  his 
friend  Ambrosius ;  who,  on  being  released  from  his 
sufferings  in  Palestine,  had  gone,  with  his  family,  to 
the  city  of  Nicomedia,  on  the  north-east  of  the  Pro- 
pontis.  Returning  at  length  to  Cesarea,  about  a.  d. 
240,  his  next  journey,  it  seems,  was  to  the  city  of  the 
same  name  in  Cappadocia,  the  metropolis  of  that 
province,  whither  his  former  scholar,  Firmilian,  now 
elevated  to  the  bishopric  there,  had  importuned  him  to 
come,  in  order  to  instruct  his  churches  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures.  About  A.  D.  243,  he  went 
into  Arabia,  on  the  request  of  a  council  convened 
against  Beryllus  of  Bostra,  a  bishop  of  that  country, 
who  differed  somewhat  from  the  popular  faith  con- 
cerning the  trinity.  With  him  Origen's  conversation 
effected,  what  the  council  had  been  unable  to  attain, 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  89 

the  renunciation  of  his  supposed  error  ;  and  with  such 
grace  was  this  accomplished,  that  Beryllus  became 
the  lasting  and  ardent  friend  of  his  victorious  oppo- 
nent. It  was  a  little  after  this,  perhaps  the  next  year, 
that  he  wrote,  at  the  solicitation  of  Ambrosius,  his 
books  Against  Celsus,  a  heathen  philosopher  of  the 
second  century,  who  had  hoped,  by  a  labored  treatise, 
to  overthrow  Christianity.  To  this  learned  and  witty 
enemy  of  the  Gospel,  Origen's  work  is  generally  es- 
teemed a  candid  and  thorough  answer ;  though  some 
of  the  more  judicious  and  impartial  have  detected  in 
it  a  few  instances  of  the  prevailing  disingenuousness 
and  sophistry  of  the  times.  He  was  soon  called 
again  into  Arabia,  by  another  council  of  bishops, 
in  order  to  reclaim  some  Christians  there,  who  held 
that  the  soul  dies  with  the  body,  and  with  it  awakes 
to  consciousness  at  the  resurrection.  On  his  arrival, 
he  contended  so  successfully  against  the  obnoxious 
sentiment,  that  its  advocates  changed  their  opinion, 
and  returned  to  the  cordial  fellowship  of  the  church. 
This  was  under  the  reign  of  Philip,  to  whom,  per- 
haps, more  properly  belongs  the  distinction  commonly 
allowed  to  Constantine,  of  having  been,  though  se- 
cretly, the  first  Christian  emperor.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
Origen  appears  to  have  been  honored  with  his  corre- 
spondence, and  with  that  of  the  empress. 

Notwithstanding  the   multiplicity  of  his   pursuits, 
the   variety  of  his    situations,  and   the 
changes  of  his  fortune,  he  seems  never 
to  have  neglected  the  Ilexapla  or  Octapla,^  that  great 

1  It  was  called  Tetrapla,  ffexapla,  or  Octapla,  according  as  the  copy  contained 
three,  six,  or  all  of  the  columns. 


90  THE    ANCIENT   IIISTORr 

work,  which  alone  would  have  immortalized  his  name. 
At  what  time  it  was  completed  is  unknown ;  proba- 
bly, however,  not  far  from  this  period.  In  its  entire 
state  it  consisted  of  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, placed  in  the  first  column ;  the  same,  but 
written  in  Greek  letters,  in  the  second;  the  transla- 
tion of  Aquila  in  the  third ;  that  of  Symachus  in  the 
fourth ;  the  Septuagint  in  the  fifth ;  the  version  of 
Theodotian  in  the  sixth ;  two  other  versions  of  the 
prophets  in  the  seventh  and  eighth ;  together  with  a 
translation  only  of  the  Psalms.  AYherever  he  found 
the  Septuagint  to  depart  from  the  Hebrew  text,  he  af- 
fixed difierent  marks  to  denote  what  was  omitted,  or 
what  was  added;  and,  by  similar  means,  he  distin- 
guished the  various  readings  of  the  Original  itself, 
according  to  the  countenance  each  one  received  from 
the  several  translations.  This  is  supposed  to  have 
been  the  first  attempt  at  a  Polyglot,  or  critical  com- 
pilation of  the  Scriptures  in  diiferent  languages.  In 
the  great  uncial  letters  of  ancient  manuscripts,  it  must 
have  swelled  to  an  enormous  bulk,  amounting,  as 
Montfaucon  thinks,  to  at  least  fifty  volumes  of  a  very 
large  size.  Mosheim  says,  that  "though  almost  en- 
tirely destroyed  by  the  waste  of  time,  it  will,  even  in 
its  fragments,  remain  an  eternal  monument  of  the  in- 
credible application  with  which  that  great  man  labored 
to  remove  those  obstacles  which  retarded  the  progress 
of  the  Gospel." 

But  neither  the  services  he  had  rendered  the 
church,  nor  the  veneration  with  which  his  name  was 
generally  regarded  throughout  the  East,  could  stifle  a 
strong  disafiection,  in  many  Christians  of  that   day, 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  91 

towards  some  of  his  extravagancies.  We  may  per- 
ceive, in  his  later  writings,  allusions  to  the  complaints 
of  such  as  reprehended  his  perpetual  use  of  heathen 
philosophy,  and  of  those  who  animadverted  on  his 
allegorical  system  of  interpreting  the  Scriptures.  And 
we  occasionally  discover  that  he  felt  and  lamented, 
what  is  the  common  misfortune  of  greatness,  that  the 
unbounded  praises  lavished  upon  him  by  his  personal 
admirers  had  awakened  in  others  a  spirit  of  envy 
and  abuse.  An  invidious  hostility,  once  -excited, 
could  never  be  at  a  loss,  amidst  the  prodigious  num- 
ber of  his  writings,  to  select  some  wild  notions,  many 
unguarded  expressions,  which  would  seemingly  justify 
the  clamors  of  passion,  and  the  cold  discountenance, 
of  more  prudent  malignity  ;  and  it  is  said  that  Origen, 
at  length,  judged  it  expedient  to  write  a  letter  to  Fa- 
bian, the  Bishop  of  Rome,  in  vindication  of  his  im- 
peached orthodoxy.^ 

1  Eusebius  (Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  36)  barely  mentions  that  Origen  wrote  a  let- 
ter to  Fabian  concerning  his  own  orthodoxy ;  but  Jerome,  who  is  not  the  best 
authority,  says  (Hieron.  Epist.  xli.,  vel.  65,  ad  Pammach.,  p.  347),  that  Origen 
therein  lamented  that  he  had  written  those  things  for  which  he  had  been  censured, 
and  that  he  also  cast  upon  Ambrosias  the  blame  of  having  circiilated  those  writ- 
ings which  contained  them,  and  which  he  himself  had  intended  only  for  private 
use.  How  much  of  this  improbable  account  is  true  cannot  be  determined,  as  the 
letter  is  lost.  It  is  natural,  here,  to  ask.  Was  Universalism  one  of  those  tenets 
which  then  gave  offence  ?  But  to  this  interesting  cxuestion  no  certain  answer  is  to 
be  found.  Circumstances,  however,  would  lead  us  to  hazard  an  answer  in  the 
negative :  1.  Origen  continued  to  advocate  that  doctrine  even  in  his  latest  publica- 
tions (see  note  s  to  §  xi.  of  this  chapter),  without  an  intimati(fh  that  it  was  cen- 
sured. 2.  In  all  the  succeeding  controversies  concerning  his  orthodoxy,  which  be- 
gan to  rage  in  about  forty  years  after  his  death,  we  never  find  that  doctrine  in- 
volved, till  after  the  contention  had  lasted  a  century  (see  chapters  \\.  and  vii.); 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  a  doctrine  of  so  much  consequence,  had  it  once  been 
pointed  out  as  subject  of  complaint,  would  have  been  forgotten  as  such,  both  by 
his  adversaries  and  his  apologists. 

It  does,  indeed,  appear,  from  an  expression  in  his  Letter  to  his  Alexandrian 
friends,  as  explained  by  Jerome,  that  a  Valentinian  heretic  endeavored  to  stigma- 
tize him  with  holding  the  salvation  of  the  devil.    But  we  have  only  a  part  of  the 


92  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Though  now  above  sixty  years  of  age  (a.  d.  246) , 
he  appears  to  have  subjected  himself  to  as  great  exer- 
tions as  at  any  former  period  ;  proceeding  in  the  com- 
position of  some  large  works,  and  at  the  same  time 
delivering  daily  lectures  to  the  people  of  CesarGa. 
These,  though  extemporaneous  and  unprepared,  were 
nevertheless  so  highly  esteemed,  that,  with  his  con- 
sent, transcribers  were  now  employed,  for  the  first 
time,  to  take  them  down  as  they  were  delivered,  and 
then  to  publish  them  under  the  title  of  Homilies.  At 
length  his  Commentaries  on  St.  Matthew's  Gospel, 
those  on  the  twelve  minor  Prophets,  and  on  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans,  were  finished  in  succession,  having 
employed  him  till  near  the  year  250.  At  this  date 
the  terrible  persecution  under  the  Emperor  Decius 
broke  out ;  and  Origen  was  seized  at  the  city  of 
Tyre,  cast  into  prison,  and  loaded  with  irons.  Here 
he  suffered  the  most  excruciating  torments  :  his  feet 
were  kept  in  the  stocks,  distended  to  the  utmost  ex- 
tremity, for   several  days ;    he  was  then  threatened 


letter,  and  that  only  in  the  translations  of  Rufinus  (De  Adulterat.  Librorum  Ori- 
gen), and  of  Jerome  (Apolog.  adversus  Rufin.,  lib.  ii.,  pp.  413,  415);  both  of  whom 
are  well  known  to  have  taken  considerable  freedom  with  Origen's  language. 
There  is  some  difference  in  their  versions  of  this  passage;  but  much  more  in  the 
light  in  which  they  leave  the  subject.  According  to  the  former,  Origen  incidentally 
observes  that  his  enemies  accused  him  of  asserting  the  salvation  of  the  devil, 
"  which,"  adds  he,  "  no  one  can  assert,  unless  transported  or  manifestly  insane." 
According  to  Jerome,  who  corrects  the  misrepresentations  of  Rufinus,  Origen 
barely  alludes  to  the  cavils  of  a  certain  Valentinian  concerning  the  salvation  of 
the  devil;  '' which,"  continues  he,  -'none  could  avow,  unless  insane."  VThat  is 
unaccountable  in  these  two  translations  is,  not  their  difference,  but  the  point  in 
which  they  agree,  namely,  that  they  both  make  Origen  pronounce  the  salvation  of 
the  devil  a  tenet  which  none  could  assert,  unless  insane  (when  he  himself  had  as- 
serted and  illustrated  it  (De  Principlis,  lib.  i.,  cap.  6,  and  lib.  iii..  cap.  6,  §  5),  and 
continued  to  do  so  in  his  latest  works  (tom.  xiii.  in  Matt.,  and  Homil.  in  Josh.). 
Ab  neither  Rufinus  nor  Jerome  had  this  sentence  particularly  in  view,  we  may 
Buspect  that  they  have  given  it  a  false  construction. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  93 

with  being  burned  alive ;  and  when  it  appeared  that 
threats  could  not  shake  his  constancy,  he  was  racked 
with  several  kinds  of  torture.  At  length  his  execu- 
tioners, tired  with  the  infliction  of  unavailing  cruelties, 
or  more  probably  prevented  by  the  death  of  Decius 
(a.  d.  251),  sufiered  him  to  escape  alive.  After  this 
he  held  several  conferences,  and  wrote  many  letters, 
in  all  which  he  evinced  a  soul  worthy  of  the  life  he 
had  led.  He  died  at  T}Te,  about  a.  d.  253,  in  the 
sixty-sixth  or  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age ;  and  a 
splendid  tomb,  erected  in  that  city,  declared  to  future 
times  the  grateful  veneration  which  the  church  paid  to 
his  memory.^ 

Nothing  but  a  frame  like  iron  could  so  long  have 
held  out  under  his  rigid  privations  and  unremitted 
labors.  Employed,  for  the  most  of  his  life,  in  the 
numerous  duties  of  a  i^ublic  and  daily  instructor,  he 
still  found  time  to  perfect  himself  in  the  whole  circle 
of  human  knowledge,  such  as  it  then  was,  and,  after 
all,  to  become  one  of  the  most  voluminous  ^  writers 
that  ever  lived.  The  wonder  with  which  the  an- 
cients regarded  his  various  achievements  was  but 
natural ;    and   it  was  with  some  propriety  that  they 


1  For  the  Life  of  Origen,  I  have  had  recourse  to  the  moderns,  instead  of  at- 
tempting to  collect,  arrange,  and  illustrate  the  original  accounts  scattered  through 
Eusebius  and  other  ancient  writers.  See  Huetii  Origeniana,  inter  Origenis  Opera ; 
Cave's  Lives  of  the  Fathers ;  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Patrum;  Lardner's  Credibility 
of  the  Gospel  History;  and  Delarue's  Notes  and  Prefatory  Remarks  (edit.  Orige- 
nis Operum  Delarue),  and  Mosheim's  Criticisms  (De  Rebus  Christian,  ante  Con- 
stantinum).  These  authors,  though  they  agree  in  everything  inaportant,  differ 
somewhat  in  dates,  and  in  the  order  of  events. 

-  He  published,  some  say,  six  thousand  volumes,  many  of  which,  however,  must, 
of  course,  have  been  very  small.  The  remains  of  this  astonishing  mass  are  col- 
lected in  four  volumes  folio,  besides  two  additional  volvmaes  containing  the  frag- 
ments of  the  Hexapla. 


94  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

surnamecl  him  Adamantiiis,  to  intimate  the  invincible 
strength  of  a  constitution  that  sustained  toils  which 
would  have  worn  out  several  ordinary  lives.  With 
regard  to  his  native  talents,  there  is  a  striking,  though 
not  singular,  contrariety  in  his  character  :  endued  with 
a  perception  the  very  quickest,  and  with  a  memory 
the  most  retentive,  but  deficient  in  the  more  substan- 
tial gifts  of  cool  judgment  and  good  sense,  he  ap- 
pears, by  turns,  the  brightest  of  geniuses  and  the 
wildest  of  visionaries.  As  a  moral  and  religious  man, 
however,  his  character  is  consistent,  and  his  reputa- 
tion without  a  blot.  Both  his  friends  and  his  enemies 
agree  in  attributing  to  him  the  most  illustrious  virtue, 
ardent  piety,  and  the  purest  zeal.  Austere,  but  not 
morose,  he  never  spared  himself,  and  amidst  all  the 
abuse  he  sufiered  seldom  showed  the  least  severity 
against  others.  Naturally  of  a  meek  and  unassuming 
temper,  he  endured,  unmoved,  the  admu-ation  of  the 
world,  with  no  apparent  vanity,  and  without  that  more 
treacherous  symptom  of  pride,  the  affectation  of 
humility.  As  a  writer,  his  style  is  simple,  clear,  and 
fluent;  but  careless,  redundant,  and  often  incorrect. 
To  conclude  his  character,  in  the  words  of  one  of  the 
most  learned  and  discriminating  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
torians, he  was  "a  man  of  vast  and  uncommon  abili- 
ties, and  the  greatest  luminary  of  the  Christian  world, 
which  this  age  exhibited  to  view.  Had  the  justness 
of  his  judgment  been  equal  to  the  immensity  of  his 
genius,  the  fervor  of  his  piety,  his  indefatigable  pa- 
tience, his  extensive  erudition,  and  his  other  eminent 
and  superior  talents,  all  encomiums  must  have  fallen 
short  of  his  merit.     Yet  such  as  he  was,  his  virtues 


OF   UJS1VER>-ALISM.  95 

and  his  labors  deserve  the  admiration  of  all  ages ; 
and  his  name  will  be  transmitted  with  honor  through 
the  annals  of  time,  as  long  as  learning  and  genius 
shall  be  esteemed  among  men."  ^ 

We  have  as  yet  quoted  only  one  of  his  testimonies 
in  favor  of  Universalism.  It  was,  with  him,  a  favorite 
topic ;  and  he  introduced  it,  not  only  in  his  earliest, 
but  also  in  his  latest  publications,  in  his  popular 
discourses,  or  Ho^nilies,  as  well  as  in  his  more  labored 
and  systematic  treatises.^  Passing  over  his  books  Of 
Princijples^  and  many  other  works,  in  which  this 
doctrine  abounds,  we  shall  transcribe  only  a  passage 


1  Mosheim,  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  iii.,  part  2,  chap,  ii.,  §  7. 

2  I  do  not  attempt  to  point  out  all  the  passages  in  which  Origen  introduces  this 
doctrine ;  but,  however  imperfect,  the  following  table  of  references  to  Delarue's 
splendid  edition  of  his  works  may  aflFord  some  notion  of  its  frequent  occurrence, 
and  assist  the  inquiries  of  such  as  wish  to  consult  the  original.  The  dates  here 
affixed  to  the  respective  works  are  those  assigned  by  the  learned  editor :  — 

Be  Frincipiis,  A.  D.  230,  hb.  i.,  cap.  vi.  and  vii.,  §  5.  Lib.  ii.,  cap.  i.  2,  cap.  iii.  3, 
5,  7,  cap.  v.  3,  cap.  x.  5,  6.  Lib.  iii.,  cap.  v.  5,  6,  7,  8,  cap.  vi.  1,  2,3,  4,  5,  6,  8,  9. 
Lib.  iv.,  cap.  21  and  22  and  25.  —  Homilia  in  Lucam.  Perhaps  about  A.  D.  230, 
Homil.  xiv.  —  CommentaHorum  in  Johannem,  torn,  i.,  cap.  14.  About  A.  D.  230. 
—  De  Oraiione.  After  A.  D.  231,  cap.  v.,  p.  205 ;  cap.  xsvii.,  pp.  250, 251 ;  cap.  xxix., 
pp.  261  to  264.  —  Comment,  in  Johan.  Tom.  xix.,  cap.  3.  About  A.  D.  234.  —  Tract 
xxxiv.  m  Johannem —  Commentarli  in  Matthcieum.  About  A.  D.  245,  torn.  x.  and 
xiii.  and  xv. —  Tract  xxiii.  and  xxx.  and  xxxiii.  in  3Iatthceum,. —  Commentarii  in 
Epist.  ad  Romanos.  About  A.  D.  246,  lib.  v.,  cap.  7,  Ub.  viii.,  cap.  12.  — Ilomilice. 
Between  A.  D.  245  and  250,  Homil.  in  Leviticum  vii.,  cap.  2,  p.  222.  Homil.  viii.,  cap. 
4,  p.  230.  Homil.  in  Numerosvi.,cap.4.  Homil.  xi.,  cap.  5.  Homil.  xxvi.,  cap.  4,  etc. 
Homil.  in  i.,  lib.  Regum  ii.,  cap.  28,  pp.  494  to  498.  Homil.  in  lib.  Jesu  Nave  viii., 
cap.  4,  p.  416.  Homil.  in  Jeremiam  ii.,  cap.  2  and  3,  pp.  138, 139.  Homil.  xvi.,  cap. 
5  and  6,  pp.  232,  233.  Homil.  in  Ezekielem  iv.  and  v.  and  x. —  Contra  Celsum. 
About  A.  D.  248  or  249,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  10,  p.  507;  cap.  13,  p.  509;  cap.  28,  p.  521. 
Lib.  V.  cap.  21,  p.  594;  cap.  15  and  16,  pp.  588,  589.  Lib.  viii.,  cap,  72,  pp.  795, 
796.0 

a  We  thought  to  quote  in  full  all  the  passages  in  which  Origen  clearly  teaches 
Universalism.  But  in  arranging  to  do  this,  the  matter  so  grew  upon  our  hands, 
that  we  found  it  would  occupy  far  too  much  space.  The  above  references  only 
indicate  how  fully  Origen  has  treated  the  subject.  They  do  not  at  all  exhaust  the 
places  in  which  it  is  touched.  His  De  Pnncipiis,  and  Comm.  in  Epist.  ad  Bom,, 
are  particularly  full  and  interesting.  — A.  St.  J.  C. 


96  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

or  two  from  one  of  his  last  productions,  which  is  still 
extant  in  the  original  Greek. 

Celsus,  the  heathen  philosopher,  had  accused  the 
Christians  of  representing  God  as  a  merciless  tor- 
mentor, descending,  at  the  end  of  the  world,  armed 
with  fire.  To  this  charge  Origen  replied,  that  "since 
the  scoffing  Celsus  thus  compels  us  to  go  into  subjects 
of  a  profounder  nature,  we  shall  first  say  a  few^  things, 
enousrh  to  o^ive  the  readers  a  notion  of  our  defence  on 
this  point,  and  then  proceed  to  the  rest.  The  sacred 
Scripture  does,  indeed,  call  our  God  a. consuming  fire 
(Dent.  iv.  24),  and  says  that  rivers  of  fire  go  before 
his  face  (Dan.  vii.  10) ,  and  that  he  shall  come  as  a 
refiner's  fire  and  as  fuller's  soap,  and  purify  the  people 
(Mai.  iii.  2).  As,  therefore,  God  is  a  consuming 
fii'e,  w^hat  is  it  that  is  to  be  consumed  by  him  ?  We  say 
it  is  wickedness,  and  w^hatever  proceeds  from  it,  such 
as  is  figuratively  called  wood,  hay,  and  stubble.  These 
are  w^hat  God,  in  the  character  of  fire,  consumes. 
And  as  it  is  evidently  the  wicked  w^orks  of  man  which 
are  denoted  by  the  terms  wood,  hay,  and  stubble,  it 
is,  consequently,  easy  to  understand  what  is  the 
nature  of  that  fire  by  which  they  are  to  be  consumed. 
Says  the  apostle,  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work 
of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  one's  ivork  abide,  ivhich  he 
hath  built,  he  shall  receive  a  reivard.  If  any  07ie\^ 
work  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss.  (1  Cor.  iii. 
13 — 15.)  What  else  is  here  meant  by  the  work 
which  is  to  be  burned,  than  whatever  arises  from 
iniquity?  Our  God  is,  accordingly,  a  consuming  fire, 
in  the  sense  I  have  mentioned.  He  shall  come  also  as 
a  refiner's  fire,  to  purify  rational  nature  from  the  alloy 


OF   U^'IVECSALISM.  97 

of  wickedness,  and  from  other  impure  matter  which 
has  adulterated,  if  I  may  so  say,  the  intellectual  gold 
and  silver.  Elvers  of  fire  are,  likewise,  said  to  go 
forth  before  the  face  of  God,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
suming whatever  of  evil  is  admixed  in  all  the  soul."  ^ 

Again :  Celsus  had  treated,  as  very  extravagant, 
the  expectation  of  Christians  that  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  should  at  length  agree  in  one  system  of 
belief  and  practice.  On  this,  Origen  observed,  "It  is 
here  necessary  to  prove  that  all  rational  beings,  not 
only  may,  but  actually  shall,  unite  in  one  law.  The 
Stoics  say  that  when  the  most  powerful  of  the  elements 
shall  prevail,  then  will  come  the  universal  conflagra- 
tion, and  all  things  be  converted  into  fire ;  but  we 
assert  that  the  Word,  who  is  the  wisdom  of  God,  shall 
bring  together  all  intelligent  creatures,  and  convert 
them  into  his  own  perfection,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  their  free  will  and  of  their  exertions. 
For,  though  among  the  disorders  of  the  body  there 
are,  indeed,  some  which  the  medical  art  cannot  heal, 
yet  we  deny  that  of  all  the  vices  of  the  soul,  there  is 
any  which  the  supreme  Word  cannot  cure.  For  the 
Word  is  more  powerful  than  all  the  diseases  of  the 
soul ;  and  he  applies  his  remedies  to  every  one  ac- 
cording to  the  pleasure  of  God.  And  the  consumma- 
tion of  all  things  will  be  the  extinction  of  sin ;  but 
whether  it  shall  then  be  so  abolished  as  never  to 
revive  again  in  the  universe,  does  not  belong  to  the 
present  discom\se  to  show.  What  relates,  however, 
to  the  entire  abolition  of  sin  and  the  reformation  of 
every  soul  may  be  obscurely  traced  in  many  of  the 

1  Contra  Celsum,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  13,  p.  509. 


98  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

prophecies  ;  for  there  we  discover  that  the  name  of 
God  is  to  be  invoked  by  all,  so  that  all  shall  serve 
him  with  one  consent ;  that  the  reproach  of  contumely 
is  to  be  taken  away,  and  that  there  is  to  be  no  more 
sin,  nor  vain  words,  nor  treacherous  tongue.  This 
may  not,  indeed,  take  place  with  mankind  in  the 
present  life,  but  be  accomplished  after  they  shall  have 
been  liberated  from  the  body."  ^ 

In  all  his  works,  Origen  freely  uses  the  expressions 
everlasting  fire,  everlasting  punishment,  etc.,  without 
any  explanation,  such  as  our  modern  prepossessions 
would  render  necessary  to  prevent  a  misunderstand- 
ing. It  should  also  be  particularly  remarked,  that 
among  the  numerous  passages  in  which  he  advances 
Universalism,  there  is  not  an  instance  of  his  treating 
it  in  the  way  of  controversy  with  the  orthodox ;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  themselves  did  not,  so 
far  as  we  can  discover,  censure  or  oppose  it.  Some- 
times he  avails  himself  of  its  peculiar  principles  to 
vindicate  Christianity  from  the  reproaches  or  witti- 
cisms of  the  heathens,  and  to  maintain  the  benevolence 
of  the  one  God  against  the  objections  of  the  Gnostics. 
Sometimes,  again,  he  states  and  defines  it,  in  a  formal 
and  labored  manner ;  but  in  most  cases  he  introduces 
it  incidentally,  either  as  the  natural  result  of  some 
well-known  Christian  principle,  or  as  the  positive 
doctrine  of  particular  Scriptures.^ 


1  Contra  Celsum,  lib.  viii.,  cap.  72,  pp.  795,  796. 

2  I  subjoin  the  principal  texts  that  he  adduced  in  favor  of  Universalism.  Those 
from  the  Old  Testament  are  translated  according  to  the  Septuagint  version,  which 
Origen,  like  all  the  ancient  fathers,  followed. 

Ps.  xxxi.  19.  How  great  is  the  multitude  of  thy  favors.  Lord,  which  thou  hast 
laid  up  in  secret  for  those  who  shall  fear  thee  I  — Ps.  Ixxviii.  30—35.    Even  while 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  99 

In  two  or  three  places,  however,  he  represents  the 
salvation  of  all  men  as  belonging,  in  some  sense,  to 
the  Christian  mysteries,  w^hich  should  not  be  too  freely 

their  meat  was  yet  in  their  mouth  the  anger  of  God  came  up  against  them,  and 
slew  them  in  their  fatness,  and  crippled  the  chosen  ones  of  Israel.  In  all  this  they 
still  sinned,  and  believed  not  his  wondrous  works :  therefore  their  days  passed 
away  in  vanity,  and  their  years  with  speed.  But  ichen  he  had  filaiti  them,  then 
they  sought  him,  and  returned,  and  camat^uickly  to  God  ;  and  they  remembered 
that  God  icas  their  helper,  and  that  God  the  JToat  High  teas  their  redeemer.  —  Ps. 
ex.  1,  2.  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand,  till  I  make 
.thine  enemies  thy  footstool.  Out  of  Zion  theJLord  will  send  thee  a  rod  of  power; 
rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine  enemies. — ^Isa.  iv.  4.  For  the  Lord  shall  wash 
away  the  filth  of  the  sons  and  the  daughters  of  Zion,  and  cleanse  the  blood  from  the 
midst  of  them  by  the  spirit  of  judgment  and  by  the  spirit  of  burning.  —  Isa.  xii.  1, 
2,  And  in  that  day  thou  wilt  say,  I  bless  thee,  O  Lord;  for  though  thou  wast 
angry  with  me,  thou  hast  turned  away  thy  fury  and  pitied  me.  Behold,  God  is 
my  Saviour;  I  will  trust  in  him  and  not  be  afraid;  because  the  Lord  is  my  glory 
and  my  praise,  and  hath  saved  me.  — Isa.  xxiv.  21 — 23.  And  the  Lord  shall  bring  his 
hand  upon  the  host  of  heaven,  even  upon  the -kings  of  this  land;  and  they  shall 
gather  the  congregation  thereof  to  the  prison,  and  shall  shut  them  up  in  the  strong 
hold.  Their  visitation  shall  be  for  many  generations.  But  the  brick  shall  melt, 
and  the  wall  shall  fall ;  because  the  Lord  shall  reign  from  Zion  and  from  Jerusa- 
lem, and  be  glorified  in  the  presence  of  the  elders.  —  Isa.  xlvii.  14.  Behold,  they 
shall  all  be  burned  in  the  fire,  as  stubble,  aud  they  shall  not  deliver  their  soul 
from  the  flame.  Thou  hast  coals  of  fire;  sit  upon  them;  they  trill  he  a  help)  to  thee. 
—  Ezek.  xvi.  53 — 55.  And  I  will  restore  their  apostacies",  even  the  apostacy  of 
Sodom  aud  of  her  daughters ;  and  I  will  restore  the  apostacy  of  Samaria  and  of 
her  daughters ;  and  I  will  restore  thine  apostacy  in  the  midst  of  them,  that  thou 
mayest  bear  thy  punishment,  and  be  put  to  shame  for  all  thou  hast  done  to  provoke 
me  to  anger.  And  thy  sister  Sodom  and  her  daughters  shall  be  restored  as  at  the 
beginning;  and  thou  and  thy  daughters  shall  be  restored  to  your  former  state. — 
Hosea  xiv.  3,  4.  We  will  no  more  say  to  the  work  of  our  own  hands,  Ye  are  our 
gods.  He  who  is  in  thee  shall  have  mercy  on  the  fatherless.  /  icill  heal  their 
habitations  ;  I  will  love  them  openly ;  for  he  hath  turned  aicay  my  icrath  from 
himself  — 'iAXch.  vii.  8,  9.  Exult  not  over  me,  O  mine  enemy;  though  I  have 
fallen,  I  shall  rise,  though  I  should  sit  in  darkness,  the  Lord  will  give  me  light.  I 
will  sustain  the  anger  of  the  Lord,  until  he  justify  my  cause,  for  I  have  sinned 
against  him.  He  will  do  me  justice,  and  bring  me  into  light,  and  I  shall  behold 
his  righteousness.  — Malachi  iii.  2,  3.  Who  shall  abide  the  day  of  his  coming?  or 
who  shall  be  able  to  endure  his  appearance  ?  For  he  cometh  as  the  fire  of  a  re- 
finer's furnace,  and  as  the  soap  of  the  fullers.  He  shall  sit  as  a  refiner  and  purifier 
of  silver  and  gold ;  and  he  shall  jjurify  the  sons  of  Levi,  and  melt  them  as  gold  and 
silver.  Then  shall  they  present  to  the  Lord  an  off'ering  in  righteousness.  — Matt. 
V.  26.  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  by  no  means  come  out  thence  till  thou 
hast  paid  the  uttennost  farthing.  —  Matt,  xviii.  12,  13.  [Parable  of  the  Lost 
Sheep. 1  —John  x.  16.  And  other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold :  th.em 
also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice ;  and  there  shall  be  one  fold  and 
one  shepherd.  —Rom.  viii.  20—23.    For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity, 


100  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

divulged.  But  we  must  observe  that  in  this  he  only 
applied  a  rule  which  the  orthodox  of  his  age  held  with 
respect  to  several  points  in  their  common  faith.  They 
used  much  caution  in  avowing  some  of  their  tenets, 
particularly  concerning  Antichrist  and  the  near 
approach  of  the  end  of  the  world.     Even  the  form  of 

not  willingly,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subiected  the  same  in  hope :  because 
the  creature  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  into  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now ;  and  not  only  they,  but  our- 
selves also,  which  have  the  first  fruits  of  the  spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our  body.  — 
Rom.  xi.  25,  26.  For  I  would  not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  be  ignorant  of  this 
mystery  (lest  ye  should  be  wise  in  your  own  conceits),  that  blindness  in  part  is 
happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in ;  and  so  all  Israel 
shall  be  saved.  —  Verse  32.  For  God  hath  concluded  them  all  in  unbelief,  that  he 
might  have  mercy  upon  all.  —  1  Cor.  iii.  13 — 15.  Every  man's  work  shall  be  made 
manifest;  for  the  day  shall  declare  it,  because  it  shall  be  revealed  by  fire;  and  the 
fire  shall  try  every  man's  work,  of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  man's  work  abide 
which  he  hath  built  thereupon,  he  shall  receive  a  reward.  If  any  man's  work 
shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss;  but  he  himself  shall  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by 
fire.  —  1  Cor.  xv.  24 — 28.  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  delivered  up 
the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father ;  when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and 
all  authority,  and  power.  For  he  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his 
feet.  Death,  the  last  enemy,  shall  be  destroyed.  For  He  hath  put  all  things 
under  his  feet.  But  when  he  saith,  all  things  are  put  under  him,  it  is  manifest  that 
he  is  excepted  which  did  put  all  things  under  him.  And  when  all  things  shall  be 
subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject  unto  him  that  put 
all  things  under  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all.  —  Verse  54.  So  when  this  cor- 
ruptible shall  have  put  on  incorruption  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  im- 
mortality, then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written,  Death  is 
swallowed  up  in  victory.  —  Eph.  i.  9,  10.  Having  made  known  unto  us  the 
mystery  of  his  will,  according  to  his  good  pleasure  which  he  hath  purposed  in 
himself:  that  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times  he  might  gather  together 
in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven,  and  which  are  on  earth,  even 
in  him.  —  Eph.  ii.  7.  That  in  the  ages  to  come,  he  might  show  the  exceeding 
riches  of  his  grace  in  his  kindness  towards  us,  through  Christ  Jesus. —  Eph.  iv.  13. 
Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.  —  1 
Tim.  iv.  10.  For  therefore  we  both  labor  and  suffer  reproach,  because  we  trust  in 
the  living  God,  who  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  those  that  believe.  — 
1  Pet.  iii.  19,  20.  By  which  also,  he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison, 
which  sometime  were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering  of  God  waited  in 
the  days  of  Noah.  etc.  —  1  John  ii.  1,  2.  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with 
the  Father.  Jesus  Christ,  the  righteous :  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins; 
and  not  for  ours  on' v,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  101 

their  creed,  and  the  rites  of  the  Lord's  supper,  were 
concealed,  as   mysteries,  from   the  uninitiated.^     In- 
deed, within  the  church  itself  there  was  a  series  of 
doctrines  appropriated  to  the  maturer  believers,  and 
withheld  from   the    less-disciplined  members.      This 
will   help  to   account  for  the   caution  which  Origen 
sometimes    recommended    in    promulgating   Univer- 
salism.     Commenting  on  that  text  in  Romans  (xi.  26, 
27)  where  St.  Paul  denominates  the  salvation  of  all 
Israel,  and  of  the  Gentile  world,  a  mystery,  he  takes 
particular  notice  of  this  term,  and  then  says,  "  The 
word  of  the  Gospel   in  the  present  life  purifies  the 
saints,  whether  Israelites  or    Gentiles,   according  to 
that  expression  of  our  Lord,  now  ye  are  dean  thovgh 
the  ivord  I  have   spoken   unto   you,     (John   xv.    3.) 
But  he  who  shall  have  spurned  the  cleansing  which 
is  efiected  by  the  Gospel  of  God  will  reserve  him- 
self for  a  dreadful  and  penal  course  of  purification ; 
for  the  fire  of  hell  shall,  by  its  torments,  jDurify  him 
whom  neither  the  apostolic    doctrine  nor   the  evan- 
gelical word  has  cleansed ;    as  it   is  written,  /  will 
thoroughly  purify  you  with  fire.     (Isa.  i.   25.)     But 
how  long,   or  for  how  many  ages,   sinners    shall  l^e 
tormented    in   this    course    of    pm^ification   which  is 
efiected  by  the  pain  of  fire,  he  only  knows  to  whom' 
the  Father  hath  committed  all  judgment,  and  who  so 
loved  his   creatures  that  for  them  he  laid  aside  the 
form  of  God,  took  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  humbled 
himself  unto  death,  that  all  men  might  be  saved  and 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.     Nevertheless, 
we  ought  always  to  remember  that  the  apostle  would 

1  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christian,  ante  Constant.,  pp.  304,  305. 


102  TIIE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

have  the  text  now  under  consideration  regarded  as  a 
mystery ;  so  that  the  faithful  and  thoroughly  instructed 
should  conceal  its  meaning  among  themselves,  as  a 
mrstery  of  God,  nor  obtrude  it  everywhere  upon  the 
imperfect  and  those  of  less  capacity.  For,  says  the 
Scripture,  it  is  good  to  keep  close  the  mystery  of  the 
king,     (Tobit  xii.  7.)"^     Such  is  his  suggestion. 

It  may  be  difficult  to  reconcile  it  with  the  undenia- 
ble fact  that  he  himself  was  in  the  habit  of  publishing 
this  secret  doctrine  in  his  w^orks,  and  of  proclaiming  it 
in  his  sermons,  or  homilies,  before  indiscriminate  con- 
gregations. Of  this  species  of  inconsistency,  how- 
ever, there  are  remarkable  instances,  not  only  among 
the  ancients,  but  also  among  the  moderns  ;  who  some- 
times declare,  in  public,  the  secret  will  of  God,  and 
proclaim  the  doctrine  of  universal  decree,  which  they 
contend,  the  meanwhile,  should  be  rather  withheld 
than  divulged. 

1  Comment,  in  Epist.  ad  Rom.,  lib.  viii.,  cap.  12.    The  other  passage  of  this  kind 
is  Conti'aCelsmn,  lib.  v.,  cap.  15. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  103 


CHAPTEE    y. 

ORIGEN'S    SCHOLARS    AND    COTEMPORARIES. 

With  the  account  of  Origen  naturally  belongs  a 
view  of  the  extent  to  which  Universalism  prevailed  in 
his  time,  together  with  some  notice  of  the  more  emi- 
nent of  its  believers  among  his  cotemporaries.  But, 
here  the  clear  light  of  history  forsakes  us.  In  the 
lapse  of  ten  or  fifteen  centuries  every  document,  if 
such  there  was,  which  might  have  pointed  out  the 
state  of  the  doctrine,  has  perished  ;  and  we  are  left  to 
the  uncertainty  of  conjecture,  guided  only  by  cir- 
cumstantial evidence,  scanty  and  indistinct. 

In  attempting  to  gather  some  general  opinion  out 
of  this  obscurity,  we  must  place  no  great  reliance  on 
any  supposed  efiect  which  the  plain  testimonies  of 
Scripture  ought  to  have  had  upon  the  common  belief 
of  that  time  ;  for  ecclesiastical  history  shows  that,  in 
every  age,  Christians  have  taken  their  sentiments  from 
other  sources  than  immediately  from  the  Bible.  Nor 
must  we  adopt  the  convenient  axioms  of  some  enthu- 
siasts, that  every  essential  Christian  truth,  or  what  we 
deem  such,  has  found  an  uninterrupted  succession  of 
adherents,  from  Christ  to  the  present  time  ;  for  when 
we  assume  this  ground,  we  forsake,  at  once,  the  re- 
gion of  history,  for  that  of  mere  Jiypothesis.  We 
must,  in  the  present  case,  judge  what  \^ probable  only 


104  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

from  what  is  known ;  and  remember,  meanwhile,  that 
we  may  still  err  in  our  conclusions. 

It  would  certainly  be  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  great  authority  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  the 
vast  influence  of  Origen,  could  have  failed  to  secure 
many  believers  in  all  their  prominent  tenets.  Were 
we  to  take  into  our  account  all  their  disciples,  patrons, 
and  admiring  friends,  or  even  those  of  the  latter  alone, 
we  should  have  the  main  body  of  the  bishops  and 
churches  throughout  all  the  East.  Those  of  Arabia 
regarded  him  as  the  great  and  successful  champion  of 
the  faith ;  in  Palestine  and  Phoenicia  his  authority  in 
doctrine  was  almost  absolute ;  in  Cappadocia  his  in- 
structions were  eagerly  sought  and  followed  ;  and  in 
the  remote  province  of  Pontus  his  scholars  stood  first 
among  the  bishops ;  Greece  had  long  esteenaed  and 
revered  him  ;  and  even  in  Egypt,  notwithstanding  the 
quarrel  of  Demetrius,  it  is  evident  that  the  churches, 
together  with  the  presbyters  in  general,  and  many  of 
their  bishops,  were  warmly  attached  to  Origen.  But 
to  reckon  all  these,  barely  on  this  account,  as  Univer- 
salists,  would  certainly  be  extravagant.  Many  of  his 
advocates  probably  regarded  him  only  for  his  aston- 
ishing genius,  his  universal  erudition,  his  illustrious 
virtue,  or  the  services  he  had  rendered  the  church; 
some,  perhaps,  considered  him  merely  as  a  persecuted 
man,  and,  overlooking  his  harmless  peculiarities,  felt 
it  their  duty  to  defend  him  against  injustice.  It  must 
also  be  remarked,  that,  as  his  Universalism  was  not 
made  a  matter  of  complaint,  we  can  draw  but  little 
evidence  of  an  agreement  in  that  particular,  from 
mere  friendship  and  adherence  to  him ;   but  this  cir- 


OF   UXIVEKSALTSM.  105 

cumstance,  at  the  same  time,  leads  us  strongly  to  sus- 
pect that  a  doctrine,  so  momentous  and  yet  unim- 
peached,  prevailed  among  his  adversaries  as  well  as 
among  his  followers. 

Without  attempting,  then,  the  impracticable  task 
of  exploring  the  real  extent  of  the  doctrine  at  this  pe- 
riod, I  shall  only  select  from  the  Eastern  or  Greek 
churches,  which  were  the  principal  sphere  of  Origen's. 
influence,  some  eminent  individuals,  whose  intimac}^ 
with  him,  veneration  for  his  opinions,  and  peculiar  re- 
gard for  his  expositions  of  the  Scripture,  can  hardly 
be  taken  into  view  without  producing  a  conviction 
that  they  were  Universalists. 

Among  these,  the  venerable  Alexander,  Bishop  of 
Jerusalem,  holds  a  distinguished  place.  Somewhat 
older,  probably,  than  Origen,  he  had  already  studied 
with  Pantsenus,  when  the  former  became  his  school- 
fellow under  Clemens  i^lexandrinus.  In  this  situa- 
tion^ the  two  scholars  formed  a  friendship  which  was 
to  endure  through  life.  After  the  interruption  of  their 
studies  by  the  persecution  under  Severus,  we  find  Al- 
exander in  prison  at  Jerusalem,  in  a.  d.  205 ;  at 
which  time  his  faithful  sufierings  were  cheered,  for  a 
while,  by  a  visit  from  his  late  master,  Clemens,  whom 
he  always  regarded  with  great  respect.  The  exact 
period  of  his  release  is  not  known ;  but  within  a  few 
years  he  was  chosen  bishop  of  some  place  in  Cappa- 
docia,  perhaps  of  the  metropolis.  He  returned,  how- 
ever, to  Jerusalem,  about  a.  d.  212 ;  and,  on  his 
arrival,  was  unanimously  elected  colleague  with  Nar- 
cissus, the  superannuated  bishop  of  that  city.  From 
this  time  we  hear  nothing  of  him,  till  Origen  visited 


106  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Palestine,  about  a.  d.  216  ;  and  the  affectionate  def- 
erence he  then  paid  his  early  friend,  together  with  the 
faithful  support  he  afterwards  gave  him,  has  been  al- 
ready mentioned.  He  and  Theoctistus  appear  to  have 
taken  the  lead  in  the  promotion  and  defence  of  their 
illustrious  guest.  Regarding  him  as  their  own  mas- 
ter, they  resigned  to  him,  in  their  respective  churches, 
the  authority  of  publicly  expounding  the  Scriptures, 
and  instructing  the  people  in  religion. 

To  Alexander  belongs  the  honor  of  having  estab- 
lished, at  Jerusalem,  the  first  ecclesiastical  library  of 
which  there  is  any  account.  Though  a  bishop  of 
some  eminence,  he  seems  to  have  written  nothing,  ex- 
cept commonplace  letters ;  a  few  sentences  only  of 
which  are  extant.  In  the  general  persecution  under 
Decius,  he  was  arraigned  at  Cesarea,  and  again  cast 
into  prison,  where  he  soon  died,  a.  d.  250.^ 

Of  Theoctistus,  we  have  only  to  add,  that  after 
presiding  with  reputation  for  many  years  in  the  met- 
ropolitan bishopric  of  Cesarea  in  Palestine,  he  died 
not  far  from  a.  d.  260.^  It  does  not  appear  that  he 
left  any  writings  whatever. 

Perhaps  we  ought  here  to  mention  Heraclas,  the 
successor  of  Demetrius  in  the  bishopric  of  Alexan- 
dria. He  was  one  of  those  heathens  who  were  con- 
verted to  Christianity  in  the  year  203,  by  Origen's 
instructions ;  and  who  then  entered  the  great  Cate- 
chetical School  under  his  care.  Heraclas  was  soon 
called  to  witness   the  sacrifice  of  his  own  brother,  a 

1  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  chap.  Clem.  Alexand..  §§  4  and  5;  and  chap. 
Origen.  §  22;  and  Chronol.  Table,  Ann.  212.  Also  Euseb.  Uist.  Eccl.,  lib.  vi.,cap. 
14.    I  have  omitted,  in  this  account,  a  vision  or  two. 

2  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  46,  and  lib.  vii.,  cap.  14. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  107 

fellow-convert  and  disciple,  among  the  early  mart}TS 
with  which  this  seminary  was  honored.  Pursuing  his 
studies,  he  seems  to  have  become  the  favorite  of  his 
master,  since  he  was  at  length  selected  as  his  assist- 
ant, when  Origen  found  the  increasing  duties  of  the 
school  too  numerous  for  his  sole  management.  On 
the  flight  of  the  latter  from  Alexandria,  in  a.  d.  231, 
Heraclas  succeeded  him  in  the  presidency ;  and  about 
a  year  afterwards,  on  the  death  of  Demetrius,  he  was 
promoted  to  the  Alexandrian  bishopric,  the  second  for 
dignity  and  influence  in  all  Christendom.  Here  he 
continued  to  govern  the  churches  till  his  death,  in 
A.  D.  247  or  248  ;  when  Dionysius  the  Great,  another 
disciple  and  friend  of  Origen,  succeeded  him. 

Heraclas  seems  to  have  been  of  a  quiet  and  philo- 
sophic disposition.  He  had  the  reputation  of  exten- 
sive learning,  particularly  in  secular  literatm'e,  for 
which  he,  perhaps,  entertained  a  decided  partiality; 
for  on  his  elevation  to  the  bishopric  he  adopted,  and 
ever  afterwards  wore,  the  philosopher's  robe  as  his 
distinguishing  habit. ^     He  has  left  no  writings. 

Ambrosius,  the  convert,  patron,  and  familiar  friend 
of  Origen,  can  hardly  be  refused,  by  the  most  scepti- 
cal, a  place  among  the  believers  in  Universalism.  It 
was  at  his  request,  and  by  his  pecuniary  aid,  that 
Origen  composed  several  of  the  works  in  which  that 
doctrine  is  found.  So  zealous  was  he  to  perfect  him- 
self in  the  whole  system  of  his  master,  that,  during 
some  years  in  which  they  were  almost  constantly  to- 
gether, he  sufiered  scarcely  a  leisure  moment  to  escape 
without  additional  instruction  from  him  on  religion. 

1  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccl.,  Ub.  vi.,  cap.  3, 15,  20,  26,  31,  35. 


108  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Their  meals  and  their  walks,  their  morning  and  their 
evening  hours,  "vvere  devoted  to  investigations  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  to  the  solution  of  difficult  questions. 
We  have  only  to  add,  that  he  was  ordained  deacon  in 
the  church  of  Alexandria ;  he  died  before  Origen. 
It  is  said  that  some  of  his  Letters,  extant  in  Jerome's 
time,  but  long  since  Jost,  except  a  shprt  fragment, 
evinced  considerable  genius.^ 

Firmilian,  who,  after  completing  his  studies,  pre- 
sided with  celebrity  over  the  churches  of  Cappadocia, 
entertained  so  warm  an  affection  for  his  former  mas- 
ter, and  so  great  a  regard  for  his  doctrine,  that  he 
made  several  journeys  into  Palestine  in  order  to  enjoy 
his  society  and  attend  his  instructions.  At  length  he 
prevailed  on  Origen  to  visit  Cappadocia,  in  turn,  and 
to  gratify  the  common  wish  of  the  churches  there,  by 
imparting  to  them  those  treasures  of  religious  knowl- 
edge which  he  himself  had  so  much  admired,  and 
which  they  were  so  desirous  to  obtain. 

Cesarea,  the  metropolis  of  Cappadocia,  stood  on 
the  northern  declivity,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Argaeus ; 
which,  rising  to  the  south  above  the  clouds,  looked 
down  on  the  whole  province,  and,  from  its  summit  of 
everlasting  snow,  afforded  indistinct  views,  in  opposite 
directions,  of  the  remote  waters  of  the  Euxine  and 
the  Mediterranean.  In  this  great  city,  of  perhaps  four 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,^  Firmilian  was  chosen 
bishop,  not  far  from  a.  d.  234,  over  the  churches  in 
that  region.     He  soon  became  eminent  and  consid- 

1  Cave's  Lives,  etc.,  chap.  Origen,  §  10;  and  Historla  Literaria,  cap.  Ambrosius. 
Also  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Patrnm,  art.  Ambrose  and  Tryphon. 

2  D'Anville's  Ancient  Geography,  and  lices'  Cyclopedia,  art.  Cesarea. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  109 

erably  known  throughout  Christendom,  by  his  exten- 
sive correspondence,  and  the  active  part  he  took  in 
the  general  concerns  of  the  church.     On  the  famous 
question,  which  began  to  be  agitated  about  a.  d.  253, 
concerning  the  validity  of  baptism  administered  by 
heretics,  he,   like  the  churches  of  Asia  in  general, 
maintained  the  negative;  and  in  the  violent  "conten- 
tion which  raged  upon  that  point,  between  the  two 
western  bishops,  Stephen  of  Rome,  and  Cyprian  of 
Carthage,  he  accordingly  sided  with  the  latter.     Soon 
after  this,  at  the  numerous  synod  held  in  Antioch, 
A.  D.  264,  against  the  Unitarian  Paul  of  Samosata,  Fir- 
milian  is  thought  to  have  presided,  and  to  have  pre- 
vented his  condemnation,  being  either  favorable  to  his 
sentiment,  or  perhaps  deceived  with  the  evasions  prac- 
tised by  the  accused.     As  the  matter  was  not  put  to 
rest,  he  was  called  to  a  second  council,  held  there  on 
the  same  subject,  and  finally  to  a  third ;   in  going  to 
which  he  died  on  the  way,  at  the  city  of  Tarsus,  a.  d. 
269    or    270.     He    has    left   no   writings,    except    a 
long  Letter,  on  the  rebaptizing  of  heretics,  addressed 
to   Cyprian.     In  this  we  discover  that  Firmilian  en- 
tertained the  common  notion  of  that  period,  that  bap- 
tism,   administered   by  proper    authority,    conferred 
remission  of  sins  and  the  spiritual  new  birth  ;   that  he 
held  the  prevailing  faith  respecting  the  mysterious 
tricks  of  demons,  and  their  ordinary  interference  with 
the  concerns  of  life  ;  and  that  the  good  man  was  capa- 
ble of  sarcasm,  and  boisterous  invective,  which  he 
pours  out  profusely  against  Stephen  of  Rome.     The 
subject,  however,  leads  to  no  discovery  of  his  senti- 


110  THE   AXCIENT  HISTORY 

ments  concerning  endless  punishment,   or   universal 
salvation.^ 

The  last,  whom  I  here  mention,  are  the  two  broth- 
ers, Gregory  Thaumaturgus  ^  and  Athenodorus.  Born 
of  a  rich  and  noble  family  at  Neocesarea,  the  capital 
of  Pontus,  they  were  brought  up  in  a  manner  suita- 
ble to  their  birth  and  fortune,  and  instructed  in  hea- 
thenism, the  common  religion  of  the  place.  When 
Gregory  was  about  fourteen  years  old  their  father 
died,  and  their  mother,  assuming  the  care  of  their 
education,  placed  them  successively  under  difierent 
masters,  with  whom  they  studied  Ehetoric,  the  Latin 
language,  and  the  Roman  laws.  At  lengi:h  their 
sister  removing  to  Palestine,  the  Governor  of  which 
had  appointed  her  husband  one  of  his  assessors  or 
counsellors,  the  brothers  accompanied  her  as  far  as 
Berytus  in  Phoenicia,  where  was  a  celebrated  school 
for  the  study  of  law.  This  happened  about  the  time 
of  Origen's  flight  from  Egypt,  in  a.  d.  231 ;  and  the 
youths,  eager  to  see  and  converse  with  a  man  of  his 
renown,  went  to  visit  him  at  Cesarea.  Here  they 
were  at  length  prevailed  upon,  by  his  entreaties,  to 
apply  themselves  to  the  study  of  philosoph}^  the  in- 
troduction, as  he  considered  it,  to  the  science  of  relig- 
ion ;  and  when  they  had  made  sufficient  progress,  he 
led  them  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  explaining  to 
them,  as  they  proceeded,  the  obscure  and  difficult 
passages.     In  this  way  he  trained  them  up  to  a  sys- 

1  Firmiliani  Epistola  ad  Cyprianum,  is  the  Epist.  Ixxv.  inter  Cypriani  Opera., 
edit.  Baluzii.  For  his  life,  see  Cave's  Lives,  etc.,  chap.  Origen,  §  16;  and  Hist. 
Literaria,  cap.  Firmilianus.  Consult  also  Lardner's  Credihility,  etc.,  chap.  Fir- 
milian. 

2  His  name  originally  was  Theodorus. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  Ill 

tematical  knowledge  and  ardent  love  of  Christianity, 
which  they  had,  indeed,  begun  to  regard  with  a  favor- 
able eye  when  they  left  Pontus.  It  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark that  in  the  early  part  of  their  residence  in  Pal- 
estine, Firmilian  was  their  fellow-student,  with  whom 
they  then  formed  an  acquaintance  which  the  future 
circumstances  and  events  of  their  lives  must  have 
cherished* 

Having  remained  with  Origen  about  ^ve  years, 
they  were  recalled  to  their  native  country.  At  their 
departure,  Gregory  pronounced  in  public  his  Pane,- 
gync  on  Origen^  yet  extant,  in  which  he  lavishes  the 
most  extravagant  praise  on  the  genius  and  doctrine  of 
his  master,  recounts  the  history  of  their  acquaintance 
with  each  other,  and  laments,  with  fulsome  declama- 
tion, the  necessity  that  tore  them  asunder.  On  the 
return  of  the  brothers  to  Neocesarea,  it  is  said  that 
the  inliabitants  entertained  so  high  an  expectation  of 
Gregory's  talents  and  acquirements,  that,  though 
heathens,  they  desired  him  to  reside  among  them  as  a 
public  instructor  of  philosophy  and  virtue.  He  soon 
received,  also,  a  letter  from  Origen,  commending  his 
abilities,  and  urging  him  to  prosecute  his  study  of  the 
Scriptures  and  of  the  Christian  religion.  But,  dislik- 
ing the  cares  of  a  public  life,  or  modestly  distrusting 
his  qualifications,  he  complied  neither  with  the  request 
of  the  citizens,  nor  with  the  evident  wishes  of  his  late 
master,  and  withdrew  to  some  obscure  retreat,  in  order 
to  lead  a  solitary  and  contemplative  life.  A  certain 
bishop  of  that  country,  however,  pursued  him  with 
unwearied  solicitations  to  devote  himself  to  the  public 


112  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

service  of  Christianity ;  and  overcoming  at  length  his 
reluctance,  ordained  him  about  a.  d.  240,  or  245. 

Neocesarea,  an  inland  place  of  considerable  size,^ 
on  the  river  €jycus,  had  scarcely  been  visited,  as  yet, 
by  the  light  of  the  gospel;  but. when  the  popular 
Gregory  entered  on  his  ministry  there,  things  assumed 
a  new  aspect.  His  success  was  surprising.  A  large 
congregation  was  soon  gathered ;  the  number  of  his 
converts  rapidly  increased ;  and  eventually  a  stately 
church,  or  Christian  temple,  was  erected ;  the  first  of 
the  kind  of  which  we  have  any  distinct  account  in 
ecclesiastical  history.  In  the  general  persecution  of 
A.  D.  250,  he  and  his  people  fled  to  caves  and  deserts 
for  safety ;  but  when  the  brief,  yet  violent,  tempest 
subsided,  he  returned  with  such  of  his  brethren  as 
had  survived.  About  ten  years  afterwards,  an  irrup- 
tion of  the  northern  barbarians  carried  universal 
desolation  and  distress  through  Pontus  and  other  Ro- 
man provinces ;  and  the  heathen  inhabitants,  though 
sufierers  in  common  with  the  Christian,  seem  to  have 
taken  advantage  of  the  general  ^onfusion  which  en- 
sued, to  indulge  their  malice.  Many  of  the  believers 
having  denied  their  faith  in  order  to  save  their  lives, 
and  others  having  committed  depredations  on  the 
property  of  those  who  had  fled,  Gregory  was  per- 
suaded, at  the  request  of  a  neighboring  bishop,  to 
address  them  a   Canonical  Epistle,  jQt  extant,  con- 

1  It  now  bears  the  name  of  Niksar,  and  stands  in  a  luxuriant  and  delightful 
valley,  through  which,  to  the  west  of  the  city,  flows  the  river  called  Kelki  Irmak, 
from  south  to  north.  Around,  but  at  some  distance,  rise  the  mountains,  covered 
with  forests  of  the  wildest  growth,  and  presenting  the  most  romantic  and  pic- 
turesque views.  It  is  thirty  miles  north-east  of  Tocat;  and  is  placed  on  the  map 
at  about  eighty  miles  from  the  shore  of  the  Black  Sea.  (Morier's  Journey  through 
Persia,  Armenia,  and  Asia  Minor,  pp.  332,  334,  Philadelphia,  1816.) 


OF  tJNIVERSALISM.  1 13 

sisting  of  authoritative  rules  to  regulate  their  conduct 
and  discipline  in  those  lawless  times.  In  a.  d.  264, 
he  and  Athenodorus,  who  also  was  an  influential  bishop 
of  some  place  in  Pontus,  assisted  at  the  council  of 
Antioch  against  Paul  of  Samosata.  Having  returned 
to  Neocesarea,  Gregory  soon  afterwards  died  in  peace, 
wdth  the  satisfaction  of  leaving  but  few  heathens  in 
the  city,  where,  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
Christianity  had  scarcely  an  advocate.^  He  was 
reckoned  among  the  most  eminent  bishops  of  the 
time  ;  but  his  reputation  unfortunately  increased  and 
grew  monstrous  after  his  death,  w^hen  miracles  the 
most  ridiculous  and  incredible  were  attributed  to  him, 
so  that  his  name  went  down  to  posterity  wdth  the  sig- 
nificant appellation  of  Thaumaturgus,  or  Wonder- 
worker. Besides  his  Panegyric  on  Oru/en  and  his 
Canonical  Epistle^  we  have  his  brief  Paraphrase  on 
Ucclesiastes ;  ^  but  none  of  these  being  of  a  doctrinal 
character,  they  throw  no  light  on  his  views  concerning 
the  final  extent  of  salvation,  or  the  nature  and  result 
of  future  punishment.  An  ancient  writer,^  however, 
intimates,  if  I  mistake  him  not,  that  Gregory  Thau- 


1  In  the  account  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus  and  Athenodorus,  I  have  generally- 
followed  Lardner,  who  allows  but  little  credit  to  Gregory  Nyssen's  legendary  tale. 
Du  Pin,  also,  seems  to  have  discarded  it.  But  Cave  and  some  others  adopt  the 
whole,  miracles  and  all,  with  veteran  credulity. 

2  Some  attribute  to  him  the  short  Greedy  relating  solely  to  the  Trinity,  which 
Gregory  Nyssen  says  was  brought  to  him  from  heaven  by  St.  John  and  the  Virgin 
Mary.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  Gregory  Thaumaturgus  never  saw  it.  (See 
Lardner's  Credibility,  etc.,  chap.  Gregory  Tliaumat.)  The  Brevis  Expositio  Fklei, 
which  Cave,  in  his  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  had  ascribed  to  Gregory,  is  allowed,  in 
his  Hist.  Literaria,  to  be  supposititious;  in  which  he  agrees  with  Du  Pin,  Fabri- 
cius,  Tillemont,  and  Lardner. 

3  Rufinus  (Invect.  in  Hieron>Tn..  lib.  1.,  prope  Jinem,  inter  Hieronymi.  Opp.,  tom. 
iv.,  part  i.,  p.  406,  edit.  Martianay)  alludes  to  the  fact,  as  notorious,  that  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus  erred  with  Origen ;  and  it  is  of  Universalism  that  he  is  sj-f-aking. 


114  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

matui'gus  was  well  known  to  have  held,  with  his  mas- 
ter, the  doctrine  of  Universal  Restoration. 

With  him  ends  our  select  catalogue  of  Origen's 
cotemporary  followers.  It  may  serve,  at  least,  to 
point  out  some  of  the  circumstances,  which,  together 
with  the  general  diffusion  of  his  writings,  tended  to 
spread  his  sentiments  widely  through  the  East,  What 
other  j)articular  causes  operated  to  diffuse  or  cherish 
Universalism  among  the  orthodox  of  this  period,  it  is 
in  vain  to  inquire  ;  but  we  have  no  reason  to  believe 
that  it  was  confined  exclusively  to  his  adherents. 

As  to  the  different  bodies  of  heretics,  it  is  probable 
that  among  the  Gnostics  the  doctrine  remained  in  the 
same  state  as  formerly;  and  among  those  of  other 
kinds  it  may  have  found  some  believers  and  advo- 
cates.^ 

Turning  our  eyes,  for  a  moment,  from  the  Greek 
churches,  to  a  hasty  survey  of  the  Western  or  Latin, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  here  the  influence  of  Ori- 
gen,  as  well  as  of  the  other  Greek  fathers,  was  par- 


1  The  author  of  the  anonymous  book  called  Prcedestinatus,  attributed  by  some 
to  Prismasius,  an  African  bishop  of  the  sixth  century,  but  considered  by  others 
of  uncertain  date  and  origin,  says  that  one  "  Ampullianus,  a  heretic  of  Bithynia, 
avowed  the  following  error :  that  all  the  guilty,  together  with  the  devil  and  the 
demons,  tcill  be  thoroughly  purified  in  Gehenna,  or  hell,  and  come  out  thence  wholly 
immaculate ;  and  when  he  had  raised  the  whole  church  against  himself,  on  this 
account,  he  corrupted  the  works  of  Origen,  especially  the  books  Of  Principles, 
that  he  might  sanction  his  own  sentiments  by  their  authority."  (Praedestinat.,  lib. 
1.,  Hseres.  43,  inter  Simondi  Opera,  tom.  i.)  "When  this  ^\jnpullianus  lived,  he 
does  not  inform  us ;  nor  is  his  name  so  much  as  mentioned  by  any  other  ancient 
writer.  But  though  the  account  of  his  having  inserted  the  alleged  error  in  Ori- 
gen's works  is  demonstrably  untrue,  and  universally  disregarded,  there  yet  may 
be  a  question  whether  there  was  not  a  heretic  of  that  name  in  Bithynia,  some  time 
during  this  century,  who  held  the  doctrine  of  Universal  Restoration.  At  any  later 
period  he  could  not  well  have  escaped  the  notice  of  other  writers,  whose  works 
are  extant;  and,  indeed,  it  seems  difficult  to  account  for  their  profound  silence,  in 
any  way  whatever,  short  of  denying  the  whole  story. 


OF   UNIYERSALISM.  115 

tial  and  feeble,  on  account  of  the  difference  of  lan- 
guage, which  prevented  intimacy.  There  was,  also,  a 
peculiarity  in  the  customs,  manners,  and  general  turn 
of  thought,  which  distinguished  the  Christians  of  the 
West.  We  perceive  no  certain  ^  traces  of  Universal- 
ism  among  them  at  this  period.  Indeed,  the  materi- 
als for  determining,  with  precision,  their  sentiments 
on  a  number  of  points,  are  rather  scanty.  Though 
they  had  several  bishops  and  writers  of  temporary  re- 
nown, there  was  but  one  who  still  holds  any  distin- 
guished place  in  ecclesiastical  history.  This  was  the 
eloquent,  the  active  and  resolute  Cyprian,  who  pre- 
sided in  the  bishopric  of  Carthage,  from  about  a.  d. 
249,  till  his  martyrdom  in  the  year  258.  Formerly 
a  heathen  professor  of  rhetoric,  he  be- 

,   .  .  „  ^ ,  ^         A.  D.  249  to  258. 

came,  on  his  conversion,  one  oi  the  most 
zealous   advocates    of  the    Christian    cause,   sold  his 
large    estate   to    supply  himself  with  the   means  of 
charity,  and  devoted  all  his  time  and  all  his  powers 
to  the  service  in  which  he  had  ens^aored  so  late  in  life. 

1  Novatus,  or  as  he  is  often  called,  Novatian,  an  eminent  presbyter  of  Rome, 
•who  contested  the  bishopric  of  the  church  there  with  Cornelius,  advanced  some- 
thing like  Universalism.  He  extolled  in  the  highest,  though  in  general  terms,  the 
unbounded  goodness  of  God  (De  Regula  Fidei,  cap.  ii.,  prope  fincm,  edit. 
Jackson,  Lond.,  1728,  pp.  23— 25);  and  maintained  that  the  wrath,  indignation, 
and  hatred  of  the  Lord,  so  called,  are  not  such  passions  in  him  as  bear  the  same 
name  in  man ;  but  that  they  are  operations  in  the  divine  mind  which  are  directed 
solely  to  our  purification  (De  Regula  Fidei,  cap.  iv.).  In  short,  he  asserted  the 
peculiar  principles  of  Universalism;  but  whether  he  pursued  them  out  to  their 
necessary  result  does  not  appear. 

•  Novatua  flourished  from  A.  D.  250,  onwards,  for  several  years.  After  his  contest 
for  the  bishopric,  in  which  he  was  once  elected,  he  was  condemned  by  his  more  for- 
tunate rival,  and  excommunicated  for  obstinately  refusing  to  admit  to  the  commun- 
ion such  members  as  had  once  fallen  from  their  purity  or  steadfastness,  however 
penitent  they  might  become.  A  considerable  party  attached  itself  to  him,  which 
maintained  his  opinion  and  practice  on  this  point  till  the  seventh  century,  and 
which  was  therefore  occasionally  treated  as  heretical,  and  at  other  times  merely  as 
Bchismatical.  • 


116  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

As  a  prelate,  he  must  always  stand  distinguished  by 
his  enterprising  and  commanding  talents ;  and  as  a 
wi'iter,  he  evinces  considerable  ability,  though  no  ex- 
traordinary learning.  His  study,  however,  was  not 
doctrine,  but  discipline,  the  art  of  governing  his 
churches,  and  particularly  the  management  of  the 
ecclesiastical  concerns  in  times  of  great  perplexity 
and  danger.  For  this  difficult  task  he  was  qualified 
by  a  genius  of  ready  resource,  a  bold  decision,  and  a 
vehemence  approaching  to  enthusiasm,  which  often 
carried  him  through  the  execution  of  his  designs  with 
surprising  promptness,  though  at  the  expense  of  per- 
petual contention.  We  may  lament,  rather  than 
wonder,  that  he  had  the  faults  natural  to  such  a 
character,  —  ambition  and  a  strong  propensity  to 
domineer ;  and  that  his  conduct  appears  sometimes 
dictated  by  self-will  and  passion.  While  he  sternly 
opposed  the  arrogance  of  the  Roman  bishop,  he  him- 
self cherished  extravagant  notions  of  episcopal  au- 
thority, and  unwarily  promoted  that  ecclesiastical  tyr- 
anny, which  was,  at  length,  id  enslave  the  Christian 
world.  But  a  worse  fault  than  all  these,  at  least  in 
moral  principle,  aside  from  its  general  consequences, 
was  his  knavish  assertion  of  visions  and  immediate 
revelations  from  God,  as  his  authority  and  justifica- 
tion, whenever  he  encroached  on  the  rights  of  others, 
or  resorted  to  unpopular  measures. 

As  he  seems  to  have  had  little  acquaintance  with 
the  Greek  fathers,  except  Firmilian,  and  perhaps  none 
with  Origcn,  his  views  of  the  future  state  may  be  re- 
garded as,  in  some  degree,  a  specimen  of  those  that 
prevailed   in  the   West.     He   held  a  temporary  and 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  117 

mild  purgatory  for  the  less  deserving  saints ;  ^  but 
for  impenitent  unbelievers  an  endless  punishment.^ 
And  it  is  too  manifest  that  he  indulged,  at  times,  the 
spirit  of  a  doctrine  so  congenial  with  the  hot  African 
temper:  "Oh,  what  a  glorious  day,"  says  he,  "will 
come,  when  the  Lord  shall  begin  to  recount  his  peo- 
ple, and  to  adjudge  their  rewards,  to  send  the  guilty 
into  hell,  to  condemn  our  persecutors  to  the  perpetual 
fire  of  penal  flames,  and  to  bestow  on  us  the  reward 
of  faith  and  devotedness  to  him  !  What  glory,  what 
joy,  to  be  admitted  to  see  God,  to  be  honored,  to 
partake  of  the  joy  of  eternal  light  and  salvation  with 
Christ  the  Lord  your  God ;  to  salute  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  all  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  apos- 
tles and  martyrs,  to  rejoice  with  the  righteous,  the 
friends  of  God,  in  the  pleasures  of  immortality ! 
When  that  revelation  shall  come,  when  the  beauty  of 
God  shall  shine  upon  us,  we  shall  be  as  happy  as  the 
deserters  and  rebellious  will  be  miserable  in  inextin- 
guishable fire."^ 


1  Cypriani  Epist.  ad  Antonianura,  lii.,  p.  72,  edit.  Baluzii,  Paris,  1726, 

2  Cypriani,  lib.  contra  Demetrian,  p.  224.  And  Epist.  ad  Clerum,  p.  13,  and 
passim. 

3  Cypriani  Epist.  ad  Thibaritanos,  Ivi.  fine,  pp.  93, 94.  Milner,  the  orthodox  his- 
torian, whose  translation  I  have  here  adopted,  saya  seriously,  on  quoting  this 
passage,  that ''  The  palm  of  heavenly-mindedness  belonged  to  these  pei-secuted 
saints ;  and  I  wish,  with  all  our  theological  improvements,  we  may  obtain  a 
measure  of  this  zeal,  amidst  the  various  good  things  of  this  life  which,  as  Chris- 
tians, we  at  present  enjoy."  (Church  Hist.,  cent,  iii.,  chap.  12.)  A  general  col- 
lection of  these  heavenly-minded  exultations  over  the  anticipated  tomients  of  the 
damned  would  have  satisfied  our  visionary  that  latter  ages  can  boast  genuine  in- 
stances of  Tertullian's  and  Cyprian's  zeal.  Had  he  considered,  too,  that  there 
was  some  earthly  feeling  of  revenge  to  inspire  the  joy  of  the  ancients  in  the  dam- 
nation of  their  persecutors,  he  must  have  adjudged  the  palm  to  the  more  disinter- 
ested moderns ;  who,  without  the  aid  of  provocation,  indulge  a  much  more  diffi- 
cult satisfaction  in  expecting  the  agonies,  not  of  their  oppressors,  but  of  their  sup- 
porters, their  kindest  benefactors,  and  of  their  own  families. 


118  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

C^TDrian  frequently  imitates  Tertullian,  and  some- 
times borrows  from  him ;  and,  it  is  said,  he  was  so 
partial  to  that  stern  and  gloomy  enthusiast,  that  he 
daily  read  his  works,  habitually  calling  out,  as  he  sat 
down,  Give  me  my  master.  His  confident  expecta- 
tion of  the  immediate  end  of  the  world,  and  near  ap- 
proach of  the  general  judgment,  conspired,  with  his 
naturally  w^arm  temper,  to  cherish  a  high  degree  of 
devotional  fervor ;  and  of  all  the  early  fathers  there 
was  none  whose  general  form  of  expression  approached 
so  near  that  of  the  more  enthusiastic  or  fanatical  of 
the  modern  orthodox.  Yet  his  opinions  are  by  no 
means  reducible  to  any  creed  approved  at  present. 
He  was  a  trinitarian,  but  ignorant  of  predestination 
and  uTesistible  grace  ;  he  held  that  remission  of  sins, 
and  spiritual  regeneration  w^ere  imparted  by  the  minis- 
ter to  the  candidate  in  the  rite  of  water  baptism ;  that 
true  converts  might  afterwards  utterly  fall  from  grace  ; 
that  good  w^orks,  particularly  prayers,  tears,  fasting 
and  penance,  make  satisfaction  to  God  for  our  sins ; 
and  that  matrimony  is  but  a  sort  of  tolerated  prostitu- 
tion. 

In  these  particulars,  however,  he  had  the  agree- 
ment of  a  large  proportion  of  his  cotemporaries 
throughout  the  East  as  well  as  the  West.  Christianity 
had  already  assumed  many  of  the  peculiar 

A.  D.  250  to  270.  "^  .         1        -r»  .    1 

features  it  now  wears  m  the  Romish  re- 
ligion. Salvation,  it  was  represented,  could  be  secured 
only  within  the  pale  of  the  orthodox  church  ;  and  all 
the  heretics,  the  excommunicated,  and  the  dissenters 
w^ere  exposed,  equally  with  the  heathens,  to  the  tor- 
ments of  hell.     These  separate  sects,  in  their  turn, 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  119 

however,  usurped,  at  times,  the  same  terrible  pre- 
rogative, and  retorted  on  the  catholics  their  own 
favorite  admonitions.  At  the  head  of  the  true  church, 
the  clerical  body,  and  particularly  that  of  the  bishops, 
possessed,  when  united,  an  influence  uncontrollable, 
and  powerful  even  when  divided  by  their  frequent 
discords.  Some  of  the  prelates  began  to  affect  the 
splendor  and  magnificence  of  secular  nobility,  though 
the  sword  of  persecution  hung  over  their  heads,  and 
often  fell  upon  them  in  ruthless  extermination.  The 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies  and  ordinances,  to  which 
extravagant  spiritual  efficacy  was  generally  attributed, 
were  losing  their  pristine  simplicity  in  pomp  and 
tedious  parade.  Nor  was  the  morality  of  the  gospel 
less  perverted  ;  though  downright  monachism  had  not 
been  introduced  into  the  church,  yet  acts  of  mortifica- 
tion and  penance  were  regarded  as  superior  to 
ordinary  virtue,  and  a  life  of  rigid  abstinence  as  the 
favorite  institution  of  heaven.  But,  as  might  be 
expected,  the  manners  of  the  time  approached,  at 
once,  the  two  extremes  of  austerity  and  licentious- 
ness ;  some  who  professed  the  abstinence  of  celibacy 
even  indulged,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  better  sort, 
in  the  possession  of  concubines  from  among  those  who 
had  vowed  perpetual  chastity. 

Amidst  this  scene  of  growing  corruption,  a  jealous 
zeal  was  cherished  against  all  supposed  error;  and 
the  church  exhibited  the  striking,  though  not  singular, 
spectacle,  of  rage  for  soundness  of  faith,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  common  degeneracy.  While  the  de- 
structive persecutions  of  the  heathens,  urged  at  this 
time  with  unprecedented  violence,  were  drenching  the 


120  THE    ANCIENT  HISTORY 

earth  with  Christian  blood,  the  believers,  both  in  the 
East  and  the  West,  seemed  to  devote  the  intervals  of 
repose  to  a  mad  search  for  non-conformity  in  doctrine 
and  discipline,  which  they  hunted  into  every  corner, 
and  condemned  with  little  discrimination.  In  the 
West,  Novatus  and  his  followers  were  excommuni- 
cated for  their  factious  conduct,  and  for  their  obsti- 
nate exclusion  of  the  lapsed ;  and  Cyprian  and  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  were  engaged  in  a  quarrel  about 
rebaptizing  heretics.  In  the  East,  Noetus  and  Sabel- 
lius  on  the  one  hand,  and  Paul  of  Samosata  on  the 
other,  were  arraigned  and  condemned  for  opposite 
departures  from  the  indefinable  and  wavering  standard 
of  Trinitarianism.  Between  the  East  and  the  West 
a  controversy  was  kept  up,  concerning  the  proper 
days  for  fasting,  and  the  time  for  the  celebration 
of  the  Paschal  Feast.  In  a  word,  so  universal  was 
the  passion  for  censure  that  scarcely  an  individual 
of  eminence  escaped  reproach  from  one  quarter  or 
another.  This  circumstance  will  serve  to  introduce 
us  to  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter ;  which,  return- 
ing from  our  excursion  among  the  cotemporaries  of 
Origen,  takes  up  the  history  of  his  doctrine  from  the 
time  of  his  death. 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  121 


APPENDIX    TO    CHAPTER   V 


But  in  order  to  avoid  an  unseasonable  interrup- 
tion in  that  narrative,  we  must  defer  the  history  of 
Origen's  doctrine  till  we  shall  have  brought  into 
notice  a  new  kind  of  Gnostic  Christians.  The  sect 
of  Manicheans  began  to  appear,  in  the  East,  about  this 
time  ;  and  though  small  at  first,  it  became,  eventually, 
the  most  famous  of  all  the  parties  of  oriental  heretics 
that  ever  arose.  By  gradually  drawing  into  itself 
the  older  bodies  of  Gnostics,  it  swelled,  at  length, 
to  a  formidable  magnitude  :  the  number  of  its  con- 
verts, and  the  talents  of  some  of  its  members,  gave 
it  an  alarming  respectability ;  and,  so  widely  were 
its  sentiments,  under  various  modifications,  difiused 
throughout  Christendom,  that  its  influence  disturbed 
the  church  for  many  succeeding  centuries,  and  reached 
even  down  to  the  remote  era  of  the  Eeformation. 

The  author  of  this  heresy  was  one  Mani,  a  Persian 
philosopher,  who  appears  to  have  combined  a  daring 
imagination  and  a  most  fertile  genius  with  the  austerest 
life  and  manners.  Though  educated  in  the  schools 
of  the  Magi,  and  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  religion 
and  studies  of  his  country,  he  abandoned  the  ancient 
established  faith  of  Zoroaster,  and  embraced  Chris- 
tianity. Like  many  other  converted  philosophers,  he 
attempted  an  accommodation  between  the  gospel  and 


122  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

his  former  theology.     His  history  is  deeply  involved 

in   contradiction,  and   mixed  with  fables ;   but  if  we 

ma}^  adopt  the  most  probable  accomit,  he  was,  on  his 

conversion,   ordained    presbji^er   in  the 

About  A.  D,  265.  -J  n        n  t  t  J.  i.  •! 

city  of  Ahwaz,  about  seventy  miles 
north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  As  his  general 
system  of  doctrine  was  too  manifestly  inconsistent 
with  the  tenor  of  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  repugnant 
to  the  faith  of  the  few  Christians  already  in  his 
country,  he  announced  himself  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  inspired  by  heaven  to  complete  the  imperfect 
revelation  of  his  Master,  by  declaring  the  remaining 
truths  which  he  had  not  divulged,  and  by  fulfilling 
his  ancient  promise  of  a  Comforter.  But  whether 
this  was  the  assumption  of  sincere  fanaticism,  or  the 
impious  pretence  of  designing  imposture,  cannot  be 
absolutely  determined. 

Removing,  afterwards,  to  the  capital  cities  of 
Ctesiphon  and  Ecbatana,  he  converted  to  his  religion 
the  Persian  king,  the  renowned  Sapor,  and  obtained, 
perhaps,  the  j)lace  of  tutor  to  the  young  prince,  Hor- 
mizdas.  Emboldened  by  the  royal  patronage,  and 
growing  zealous  with  the  increasing  number  of  his 
followers,  he  prosecuted  a  public  attack  on  the  old 
religion  of  the  kingdom,  in  order  to  substitute  his  own. 
The  ancient  and  numerous  priesthood  of  Zoroaster 
was  alarmed  at  this  daring  innovation  within  the  very 
court ;  the  Magi,  crowding  around  the  monarch,  soon 
succeeded  in  alienating  him  from  the  apostate,  and 
in  rousinof  him  to  avens^e  the  violated  faith  of  his 
people.  Mani  perceived  the  change ;  and  with  the 
more  faithful  of  his  disciples  fled  from  the  impending 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  123 

blow,  into  Mesopotamia.  But  on  the  death  of  Sapor, 
in  A.  D.  273,  he  returned  to  the  Persian  court,  under 
the  favor  of  the  new  king,  his  former  pupil,  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  a  strong  tower,  built  for  his 
security  against  his  numerous  and  enraged  enemies. 
Meanwhile,  his  disciples  taught  his  doctrine,  with 
success,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and,  perhaps, 
carried  it  eastward  into  India.  The  flattering  pros- 
pect of  safety  and  patronage,  however,  was  suddenly 
blasted.  The  faithful  Hormizdas  died  in  the  second 
year  of  his  reign  ;  and  his  son,  Yaranes,  on  ascending 
the  throne,  soon  yielded  to  the  entreaties  or  warnings 
of  the  Magi.  Having,  by  a  specious  pretence,  enticed 
the  destined  victim  from  his  stronghold,  he  seized 
and  put  him  to  death,  about  a.  d.  277.  Thus  fell 
Mani,  probably  in  middle  life ;  buj  the  blood  of  the 
martyr  only  quickened  the  growth  of  his  cause. ^ 

Like  some  other  Gnostics,  the  Manicheans  held 
two  Original,  Self-existent  Principles,  the  primary 
causes  of  all  things.  From  the  depths  of  past  eternity, 
the  universe  existed  in  two  separate  and  adverse 
regions  :  the  pure  and  happy  world  of  Light,  on  the 
one  hand ;  and  on  the  other,  the  world  of  Darkness, 
where  all  was  corruption,  turbulence,  and  misery. 
Over  the  realm  of  Light,  which  was  much  the  larger 
of  the  two,  reigned  the  true  God,  self-existent,  all- 
wise,  omnipotent,  completely  blessed,  and  therefore 
perfectly  good.  Innumerable  angels,  emanating  from 
him,  filled  his  tranquil  dominion,  and  partook  of  his 


1  Mosheim  (De  Rebus  Christian.,  etc.,  pp.  737 — 470)  has  manifested  his  usual  good 
sense  in  gathering  from  the  confused  stories  of  antiquity  a  probable  narrative  of 
Mani's  Life. 


124  THE  ANCIENT  HISTORT 

uninterrupted  enjoyment.  In  the  deep  centre  of  the 
opposite  world  of  primeval  darkness  was  the  abode 
of  Hyle,  or  Satan,  the  loathsome  prince  of  evil, 
without  beginning,  but  stupid  and  feeble,  though 
unceasingly  engaged  in  malicious  craft;  and  the 
countless  demons  he  had  produced  swarmed  through 
his  hideous  and  boisterous  realm,  waging  mutual  war- 
fare, and  profoundly  ignorant,  like  their  king,  of  the 
existence  of  the  world  of  light. 

In  the  eternal  lapse  of  ages,  however,  an  accident 
at  length  occurred,  by  which  a  partial  mixture  took 
place  between  the  two  original  substances,  hitherto 
distinct.  In  one  of  the  intestine  quarrels  which 
continually  raged  in  the  kingdom  of  Hyle,  a 
vanquished  party  of  demons  fled  to  the  very  confines 
of  that  world,  and  from  its  mountainous  borders  caught 
their  first  view  of  the  neighboring  realm  of  light. 
Struck  with  admiration  at  its  splendor  and  beauty, 
they  paused  ;  their  pursuers  arrived  ;  and  all,  forget- 
ting their  mutual  hostility,  consulted  how  to  gain 
possession  of  the  glorious  world  before  them.  An 
expedition  was  immediately  undertaken ;  but  the  all- 
seeing  Deity,  beholding  their  approach,  despatched  a 
body  of  celestial  powers  under  the  command  of  an 
appointed  leader.  In  the  conflict  that  ensued,  the 
forces  of  darkness  were  at  first  partially  victorious ; 
and,  though  eventually  repulsed,  they  succeeded  in 
carrying  into  captivity  a  sufiicient  quantity  of  light 
and  divine  intelligence,  to  give  them  new  capacities, 
and  to  produce  a  manifest  change  in  their  world. 
Fearing,  however,  that  the  Deity  would  liberate  and 
withdraw  that  portion  of  light  now  in  their  kingdom, 


OP  UNI  VERS  ALISM.  125 

they  contiived  to  retain  it.  For  this  purpose  they 
made,  out  of  evil  matter,  a  human  body,  like  that 
of  the  late  leader  of  the  celestial  forces,  whose  form 
they  remembered,  gave  this  body  a  soul  merely 
animal,  like  their  own,  and  then  drew  into  it  the 
captive  substance  of  light,  which  became  a  rational 
soul  allied  to  heaven.  Thus  completely  constituted, 
the  creature  was  called  Adam,  the  first  of  the  human 
race.  Afterw^ards,  Eve  was  created  in  a  similar  man- 
ner, and  with  the  same  diversity  of  souls ;  and  it  is 
from  this  diversity  that  arises  the  perpetual  conflict 
between  the  sensual  and  heavenly  natures  of  man. 

The  Deity,  however,  did  not  relinquish  his  design 
of  reclaiming  the  celestial  substance  from  the  world  of 
darkness.  In  order  to  provide  a  suitable  dwelling- 
place  for  man,  that  his  soul  might  be  brought  to  spurn 
the  soft  enticements  of  the  body,  and  return  to  its 
native  mansion,  he  created  our  world,  midway  be- 
tween the  primeval  spheres  of  light  and  darkness,  out 
of  matter  furnished  from  both  of  these  regions.  The 
sun  he  made  of  pure  fire,  and  the  moon,  of  uncon- 
taminated  water ;  the  stars  and  the  atmosphere,  of  a 
substance  somewhat  tinctured  with  evil;  and  our 
earth,  of  a  matter  almost  wholly  depraved.  Here 
was  the  appointed  habitation  of  Adam,  who,  possess- 
ing a  large  share  of  celestial  nature,  persevered  awhile 
in  rectitude.  But,  the  influence  of  his  corrupt  consti- 
tution increasing,  he  yielded,  at  length,  to  the  blan- 
dishments of  Eve,  and  so  transgressed  the  divine  law. 
The  superior,  rational  souls  of  the  first  pair  were 
instantly  overshadowed  and  obscured  with  darkness, 
and  their  aflfections  enslaved  by  the  body ;  their  evil 


126  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

propensities  gained  entire  ascendency,  and  all  their 
posterity,  born  in  the  same  fallen  condition,  are  free, 
by  nature,  to  do  only  evil ;  or,  rather,  have  lost  the 
knowledge  how  to  employ  their  will  effectually  to 
what  is  good.^ 

In  order  to  promote  the  comfort  of  man  while  on 
earth,  but  chiefly  to  aid  the  work  of  his  restoration, 
the  Deity,  after  the  creation  of  this  world,  produced 
from  his  own  being  two  peculiar  existences,  called 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  who,  with  himself,  con- 
stitute a  trinity.  Christ,  the  brightness  of  eternal 
light,  holds  his  throne  in  the  resplendent  orb  of  the 
sun,  and  extends  his  influence  to  the  moon ;  the  Holy 
Ghost  resides  in  our  atmosphere,  mollifying  its  asper- 
ity, cherishing  the  universal  principle  of  vivification, 
and  operating  on  the  minds  of  men. 

When,  for  many  ages,  God  had  attempted,  with 

1  After  a  long  discussion  of  their  notions  concerning  free-will,  Beausobre  comes 
to  the  following  conclusions  :  "1.  The  Manicheans  allowed  the  soul  to  be  free  in 
its  origin,  and  during  its  state  of  innocence.  For  it  had  power  to  resist  evil,  and 
to  overcome  it.  2.  After  its  fall  it  had  not  absolutely  lost  that  power,  but  it  had  lost 
the  use,  because  it  was  ignorant  of  its  nature,  and  of  its  origin,  and  of  its  true 
interests ;  and  because  concupiscence,  which  had  its  seat  in  the  flesh,  carries  it 
away  by  an  invincible  force  to  do,  or  allow,  what  it  condemns.  3.  The  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  delivers  the  soul  from  that  servitude,  and  gives  it  sufficient  power  to 
subdue  sin  and  to  obey  the  law  of  God,  provided  it  makes  use  of  the  helps  therein 
afforded."  Afterwards  he  adds :  ''  Finally,  I  allow  that  the  ancient  fathers  in 
general  say  that  the  Manicheans  denied  free-will.  The  reason  is,  that  the  fathers 
believed  and  maintained,  against  the  Marciouites  and  Manicheans,  that  whatever 
be  the  state  man  is  in.  he  has  the  command  over  his  own  actions,  and  has  equally 
power  to  do  good  and  evil.  Augustine  himself  reasoned  upon  this  principle,  as 
well  as  other  catholics,  his  predecessors,  so  long  as  he  had  to  do  with  the 
Manicheans.  But  when  he  came  to  dispute  with  the  Pelagians  he  changed  his 
system.  Then  he  denied  that  kind  of  freedom  which  he  had  before  defended,  and, 
so  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  his  sentiment  no  longer  differed  from  that  of  the 
Manicheans,  concerning  the  servitude  of  the  will.  He,  however,  ascribed  that 
servitude  to  the  corruption  which  original  sin  brought  into  our  nature;  whereas 
they  attributed  it  to  an  evil  quality  eternally  inherent  in  matter."  Hist,  de 
Manichce,  torn,  ii.,  pp.  447,  448.  These  conclusions  are  adopted  by  Lardner, 
Credibility  of  the  Gospel  Hist.,  part  ii.,  chap.  Ixiii.,  sect.  iv.  13. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  127 

little  success,  to  reclaim  mankind  through  the  minis- 
try of  angels  and  inspired  saints,  he  at  length  sent 
Christ,  from  his  abode  in  the  sun,  to  visit  our  world, 
not  as  a  vicarious  sufferer,  but  as  an  infallible  Teacher. 
Assuming  only  the  visionary  appearance  of  a  human 
body,  the  Saviour  entered  on  his  mission,  instructing 
our  fallen  race  how  to  forsake  the  service  of  the  prince 
of  darkness,  to  embrace  that  of  the  true  God,  and  to 
subject  the  body  to  the  government  of  the  soul  by  a 
life  of  rigid  virtue  and  extreme  austerity.  He  only 
introduced,  without  perfecting,  the  system  of  Christi- 
anity, so  that  his  first  apostles  knew  but  in  part,  and 
prophesied  but  in  part ;  but,  near  the  close  of  his 
ministry,  and  just  before  his  seeming  apprehension 
and  sufiering,  he  promised  his  disciples  to  send  a 
Comforter,  who  should  lead  them  into  all  truth.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  due  time,  Mani  the  Comforter  appeared ; 
and  not  only  completed  his  Master's  revelation,  but 
also  restored  that  doctrine  which  Christ  had  already 
taught,  to  its  original  simplicity,  by  exposing  the  many 
corruptions  introduced  by  his  followers. 

Those  souls,  who  here  obey  the  instructions  of 
Christ,  ascend,  on  the  death  of  the  vile  body,  to  their 
native  sphere ;  but  they  who  neglect  are  then  sent 
into  other  bodies  of  men,  brutes,  or  plants,  to  repeat 
their  mortal  course  of  discipline,  until  they  are  fitted: 
for  heaven.  Such,  however,  as  fight  against  the  truth 
and  persecute  its  adherents  are  first  driven  into  the 
dominions  of  the  prince  of  darkness,  to  be  tormented 
awhile  in  flame,  before  they  transmigrate  again  upon 
earth. 

At  length,  in  the  fulness  of  times,  when  all  souls, 


128  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

or  nearly  all,  shall  have  been  reclaimed,  and  the  cap- 
tive particles  of  light  won  back  to  the  kingdom  of 
the  Deity,  the  whole  of  this  world  shall  be  destroyed 
by  fire.  Some  of  the  Manicheans,  perhaps,  held  the 
restoration  of  all  souls  ;  ^  but  none  of  them,  the  salva- 
tion of  Hyle  and  his  demons.  These  were  independent 
powers,  over  whom,  so  long  as  they  remained  in  their 
own  sphere,  the  true  God  claimed  no  jurisdiction. 
After  the  end  of  our  world,  they  are  to  be  forever 
restricted  to  their  original  empire  of  darkness,  unblest 
with  the  least  mixture  of  the  good  substance  ;  and  if 
any  human  souls  shall  be  fomid  utterly  irreclaimable, 
they  will  be  stationed,  as  a  guard,  on  the  frontiers  of 
that  realm,  to  keep  the  evil  hosts  within  their  rightful 
dominions. 

Like  other  Gnostics,  the  Manicheans  denied  the 
resurrection  of  the  body.  We  have  only  to  add  that 
they  rejected  the  Old  Testament,  pretended  that  many 
parts  of  the  New,  especially  of  the  four  Gospels,  had 
been  interpolated,  either  by  ignorant  or  designing 
men ;  and  that  they  receivM  the  writings  gf  Mani  as 
of  canonical  authority.^ 

To  us  their  scheme  of  doctrine  appears  almost  too 
monstrous  for  conception  ;  but  to  those  brought  up  in 
the  Oriental  philosophy  it  was  an  ingenious  system, 
the  fundamental  principles  of  which  accorded  with  all 
their  prejudices  and  habits  of  thinking.     Nor  was  it 

1  Beausobre,  Hist,  de  Manichee,  torn,  ii.,  pp.  569 — 575.  And  Lardner's  Credi- 
bility, etc.,  chap.  Marii  and  his  Followers,  sect.  iv.  18. 

2  The  sources  whence  I  have  drawn  this  short  account  of  Manichelsm  are 
Moshemii  De  Rebus  Christianorum,  etc.,  pp.  728— 903;  Beausobre's  large  work, 
Histoire  de  Manichee  et  du  Manicheisme ;  and  Lardner's  Credibility  of  the  Gos- 
pel Hist.,  part  ii.,  chap.  Ixiii.  Of  Beausobre,  however,  I  have  made  but  little 
use,  except  what  maybe  derived  from  Lardner's  remarks,  extracts,  and  references. 


OF   UNIVERSALTSM.  129 

SO  utterly  shocking  to  the  more  simple-minded  Greeks  ; 
and  the  advantages  it  was  supposed  to  offer,  in  ac- 
counting for  the  introduction  of  evil  without  impli- 
cating the  purity  and  goodness  of  God,  counterbal- 
anced weighty  objections,  in  the  opinion  of  many. 
When  it  had  spread  in  Persia  and  other  Oriental 
countries  awhile,  it  began  to  appear  among  the  Chris- 
tians in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Eoman  empire,  as 
early,  probably,  as  a.  d.  280 ;  but  here  its  progress 
was,  at  first,  undoubtedly  slow,  as  the  orthodox 
fathers  do  not  seem  to  have  taken  any  notice  of  it  till 
thirty  or  forty  years  afterwards. 


130  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 


CHAPTER    VI. 

FROM    A.  D.  254    TO    A.  D.    390. 

Throughout  the  long  period  of  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half,  to  be  surveyed  in  this  chapter,  there  is  not 
an  intimation  found  that  Origen's  Universalism  gave 
any  offence  in  the  church,  notwithstanding  his  writ- 
ings, the  meanwhile,  underwent  the  severest  scrutiny, 
and  were  frequently  attacked  on  other  points.  In  or- 
der to  give  a  full  view  of  the  state  of  that  doctrine  in 
this  age,  we  must  attempt  a  narration  intricate  and 
often  digressive,  stating  not  only  the  opinions  of  all 
the  principal  fathers  concerning  future  punishment,  but 
likewise  all  the  complaints  and  controversies  that  arose 
on  Origen's  sentiments.^  As  we  proceed  we  shall  dis- 
cover, what  is  a  very  important  fact,  that  even  the 
few  who  treated  his  name  with  indignity,  and  bitterly 
censured   various   parts    of    his    doctrine,    uniformly 

1  Huetii  Origeniana  (inter  Origenis  Opera),  particularly  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  directs 
to  nearly  all  the  materials  for  a  history  of  Origen's  doctrine.  By  his  doctrine, 
we  mean,  of  course,  not  his  Universalism  in  particular,  but  his  general  re- 
ligious system,  or  rather  the  whole  body  of  his  peculiar  tenets.  Whoever 
has  perused  Huet's  work,  will  scarcely  be  repaid  for  reading  the  smaller 
and  less  critical  treatise,  "  Histoire  de  I'Origenisme,  par  le  P.  Louis  Doucin," 
published  at  Paris,  1700,  in  one  volume,  small  12mo,  of  388  narrow  pages ;  but 
even  this  contahis  much  more  information  than  Bishop  Rust's  Letter  of  Reso- 
lution concerning  Origen,  and  the  Chief  of  his  Opinions,  which  may  be  found  in 
the  first  volume  of  The  Phenix,  a  miscellaneous  work  begun  at  London  in  1707. 
I  have  seen  the  following  titles,  but  not  the  works  :  "  Joh.  Hen.  Horbii  Historia 
Origeniana.  sive  de  ultima  origine  et  progressu  Hsereseos  Origenis  Adamantii." 
Franc,  1670;  and  "  Berrow's  Illustration  and  Defence  of  the  Opinions  of  Origen," 
4to. 


OF   UXIVEKSALISM.  131 

passed  in  silence  over  the  prominent  tenet  of  Uni- 
versal Salvation. 

It  was  but  a  few  years  after  his  death  that  some  of 
his  views  appear  to  have  been,  for  the  first  time,  pub- 
lidy  impeached;  though,  in  this  instance,  without 
mentioning  his  name.  Origen  had  combated,  even 
in  his  earliest  publications,  the  prevailing  notion  of 
Christ's  personal  reign  on  earth  for  a  thousand  years  ; 
and  his  successive  attacks,  which  he  continued  to 
urge  against  this  point  with  more  than  his  wonted 
spirit,  had  eventually  brought  it  into  disrepute,  to  the 
great  dissatisfaction  of  the  few  who  still  adhered  to 
it.  Towards  the  year  260,  as  is  sup- 
posed, Nepos,  bishop  of  some  place  in  *  * 
Egypt,  published  in  its  defence,  a  Confutation  of  the 
Allegorists:  a  title  which  aimed,  undoubtedly,  against 
Origen  and  his  followers.  This  book,  now  lost,  was 
well  received  in  some  parts  of  Egypt,  particularly  in 
the  district  of  Arsinoe,  south  of  the  lake  Moeris ; 
where  the  doctrine  of  the  Millennium  began  to  re- 
vive, and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  involved 
several  churches  in  schism.  But  Dionysius  the 
Great,  formerly  a  scholar  of  Origen,  and  now  Bishop 
of  Alexandria,  happening  in  the  infected  district 
about  A.  D.  262,  succeeded  in  bringing  over  all  its 
advocates  to  his  own  opinions.^ 

It  will  be  readily  believed  that  so  obscure  and  mo- 
mentary a  disturbance  could  not  affect  the  renown  of 
Origen.     Accordingly  we  find  that,  twenty  or  thirty 


1  Cave's   Lives  of  the  Fathers,  chap.    Dionysius,  §  15.    And  Mosheim,   De 
Rebus  Christian.,  etc.,  pp.  720—728. 


132  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

years  afterwards,  to  call  an  author  hy  Ms 

A.  D.  280—290.  n  ^  1  t 

name  was  generally  esteemed  a  peculiar 
honor ;  and  it  appears  that  he  was  imitated  by  some 
Egyptian  TVTiters,  particularly  by  the  learned  Pierius, 
a  presbyter  of  Alexandria,  and  by  Theognostus,  pres- 
ident of  the  Catechetical  School  in  that  city, — the 
works  of  both  of  whom  have  perished.^  But  though 
his  memory  was  held  in  general  veneration,  it  seems, 
nevertheless,  that  the  division,  originally  occasioned 
by  Demetrius,  still  continued,  in  some  degree,  among 
the  Egyptian  churches.^ 

And   in   Asia,  a   public   attack,   more   direct  and 

hostile  than  that  of  Nepos,  was,   about 

A.  D.  290—300.  1  . 

this  time,  made  upon  several  points  ot 
his  doctrine.  Methodius,  Bishop  at  first  of  Olympus 
in  Lycia,  and  then  of  Tyre,  became,  from  some  cause 
unknoTVTi,  bitterly  prejudiced  against  his  memory, 
and  sought  every  means  to  render  it  odious.  He 
published,  professedly  against  him,  a  treatise  On  the 
Resurrection^  another  On  the  Pytlioness,  or  Witch  <>f 
Endor,  and  a  third  on  Created  Things;  in  all  which, 
as  well  as  in  some  other  pieces,  he  inveighed  against 
his  opinions,  and  sometimes  treated  his  name  with 
angry  abuse.  In  the  first,  he  directed  his  attacks 
against  such  of  Origen's  notions  as  may  be  comprised 
under  the  following  heads,  namely,  1.  That  mankind 
will  rise  from  the  dead  with  aerial,  instead  of  fleshly, 
bodies ;  2.  That  in  the  ages  of  eternity  the  saints  will 
become  angels  ;  3.  That  human  souls  have  existed  and 
sinned  in  a  former  state  of  being ;  4.  That  Adam  and 

1  See  the  accounts  of  Pierius  and  Theognostus,  in  Du  Pin,  Lardner,  etc. 

2  Petrus  Alexandrinus,  apud  Justiniani  Epist.  ad  Menam,  quoted  by  Du  Pin. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  133 

Eve  were,  before  their  transgression,  incorporeal 
spirits ;  and  5.  That  the  garden  of  Eden,  so  called, 
was  an  abode  in  heaven,  belonging  to  the  pre-existent 
state.  The  second  work,  now  lost,  is  said  to  have 
been  a  stricture  upon  some  of  Origen's  notions  con- 
cerning the  Witch  of  Endor,  and  the  apparition  of 
Samuel ;  and  the  third,  of  which  only  a  fragment 
remains,  was  a  refutation  of  an  opinion,  attributed, 
perhaps  falsely,  to  him,  that  the  ivorld  had  no  begin- 
ning, as  well  as  of  another,  which  in  some  sense  he 
doubtless  advanced,  that  the  world  existed  long  hefoiv, 
the  six  days  of  creation  mentioned  in  Genesis.  With 
these  seven  or  eight  particulars,  there  are  some  points 
more  trivial  which  Methodius  selected  as  obnoxious  ; 
but  in  all  his  search  for  errors,  Universalism  escaped 
without  a  censure.^  After  these  attacks,  it  seems,  he 
grew  more  favorably  disposed  towards  the  object  of 
his  late  enmity ;  and  at  length  joined  in  the  general 
admiration  of  his  talents  and  virtues.^  He  was  a 
writer  of  no  great  celebrity. 

AYhile  this  was  transacting  in  the  East,  Origen's 
writings  appear  to  have  found  a  professed  admirer  in 
the  West ;  Victorinus,  who  was  probably  a  Greek  by 
birth  and  education,  but  now  Bishop  of  Petabium  on 


1  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  art-  Methodius,  and  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc.,  chap. 
Methodius.  And  Epiphanii  Panarium.,  Hseres.  Isiv.,  where  most  of  Metho- 
dius on  the  Resurrection  is  preserved.  Also  Photii  Bibliotheca,  Cod.  234,  235. 
Some  have  said  that  Methodius's  treatise  on  Free-will  was  against  Origen ;  but  it 
was  against  the  Valentinians. 

Lardncr  thinks  that  Methodius  was  made  bishop  about  A.  D.  290,  and  martyred 
in  the  year  311.  or  312.  It  is  suspected  that  his  malicious  treatment  of  Origea 
was  the  reason  of  Eusebius's  remarkable  omission  of  his  name  in  his  Ecclesiasti- 
cal History, 

2  Huet.  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  i.,  §  2,  inter  Origenis  Opera,  edit.  Delarue; 
cimi  not.  in  loco. 


134  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  Danube,  in  Western  Germany,  is  said  to  have 
imitated  him  in  his  Commentaries^  though  he  disa- 
greed with  him  in  some  of  his  views,  particularly  on 
the  Millennium.^ 

In  the  numerous  and  influential  churches  of  Alex- 
andria, we  discover  that  the  troubles  which  arose  on 
his  expulsion,  seventy  or  eighty  years  before,  had  not 
yet  subsided.  Among  his  adversaries  now,  was 
Peter,  the  bishop ;  the  first,  probably,  of  that  class, 
who  had  presided  there  since  the  time  of  Demetrius. 
About  this  time,  or  a  little  after,  Peter  publicly  op- 
posed the  notion  of  pre-existence,  though  incidentally 
perhaps,  and  without  ascribing  it  to  Origen.  But  he 
certainly  betrayed  his  prejudice  by  unjustly  stigma- 
tizing him  as  a  schismatic,  merely  for  having  diso- 
beyed his  passionate  and  domineering  bishop.^ 
There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  the  dissensions  at 
Alexandria  never  ceased  till  they  at  length  pro- 
duced, as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  two  avowed  parties, 
both  in  the  orthodox  churches  there  and  in  the  mon- 
asteries of  the  Egyptian  deserts. 

As  we  are  now  arrived,  however,  at  the  age  of  two 
eminent  fathers  of  the  Western  church,  who  explicitly 
stated  their  opinions  of  future  torments,  we  shall 
here  avail  ourselves  of  their  representations.  Ai^- 
nobius  of  Sicca,  about  seventy  or  eighty  miles  south- 
west of  Carthage  in  Africa,  wrote  his  large  work, 
Against  the  Heathens^  probably  about  a.  d.  305  ;  in 

1  Hieronyrai  Epist.  xxxvi.  ad  Vigilant.,  p.  276,  edit.  Martianay.  A  nd  Cave, 
Hist.  Literaria,  art.  Victorinus  Petavionensis. 

2  Petrus  Alexandrinus,  apud  Justiniani  Epist.  ad  Menam,  quoted  by  Du  Pin, 
Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  Peter  of  Alexandria  I.  Yet  Eusebius  mentions  Peter  wHh 
praise. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  135 

which  he  asserted  that  the  wicked  will,  hereafter,  "be 
thrown  into  torrents  of  fire,  amidst  dark  caverns  and 
whirlpools,  where  they  shall  at  length  be  annihilated 
and  vanish  in  perpetual  extinction,"  while  the  righteous, 
on  the  other  hand,  shall  reign  in  life  eternal ;  "  for," 
says  he,  "souls  are  of  such  a  middle  nature  that 
they  can  be  exterminated  when  they  have  not  the 
knowledge  of  the  God  of  life,  and  can  also  be  pre- 
served from  destruction  by  taking  heed  to  his  threat- 
enings  and  his  mercies."  ^  So  thought  Arnobius. 
But  his  own  scholar,  the  celebrated  Lactantius,  who, 
after  going  to  Asia  Minor,  wi*ote  his  Institutes^ 
perhaps  about  a.  d.  306,^  asserted  the  endless  misery, 
instead  of  the  annihilation,  of  unbelievers.  Having 
mentioned  certain  events  to  precede  the  end  of  the 
world,  he  says,  "After  these  things  the  secret  place 
of  the  dead  shall  be  laid  open,  and  they  shall  rise. 
And  on  them  the  great  Judgment  shall  sit,  conducted 
by  that  King  and  God,  to  whom  the  supreme  Father 
shall  give  full  power  both  to  judge  and  to  reign.  .  .  . 
Nevertheless,  not  the  whole  universe,  but  only  such 
as  have  professed  the  divine  religion,  shall  then 
be  judged.  For  since  those  who  never  confessed 
God  cannot  possibly  be  absolved,  they  have  been 
already  judged  and  condemned;  as  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures testify,  that  the  impious  are  not  to  rise  in  the 


1  Arnobius  Adversus  Gentes,  lib.  ii.,  pp.  52,  53,  edit.  Lugduni  Bat.,  1651.  It  has 
been  said  that  this  work  was  written  soon  after  his  conversion,  while  he  was  only 
a  Catechumen ;  but  Lardner  shows,  satisfactoi-ily,  I  think,  from  the  book  itself, 
that  the  author  must  have  been  in  full  communion.  See  Lardner's  Credibility, 
etc.,  chap.  Arnobius. 

2  Cave  and  Lardner  place  this  work  at  A.  D.  306;  and  the  latter  assigns  his 
reasons  against  the  former  critics,  who  had,  for  the  most  part,  brought  it  down  to 
about  A.  D.  321 , 


136  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

judgment.  (Ps.  i.  5.)  Accordingly  those  only  will 
be  judged  who  believed  in  God  ;  and  their  deeds  shall 
be  weighed,  the  evil  against  the  good,  that,  if  their 
righteous  works  are  more  in  number  and  weight, 
they  may  be  admitted  to  happiness ;  but  if  their 
wicked  acts  exceed,  they  may  be  condemned  to 
punishment."^  He  proceeds,  afterwards,  to  describe 
more  particularly  the  future  conditions  of  these 
several  classes  :  the  impious,  who  have  never  acknowl- 
edged the  true  God,  shall  be  consigned  to  endless 
torment,  in  devouring  yet  unconsuming  flame ; 
but  the  professors,  whose  sins  exceed  their  righteous- 
ness, shall  be  more  slightly  touched  and  scorched 
by  the  fire  ;  while  they  who  are  fully  matured  in  ho- 
liness shall  pass  through  it  without  any  sensation  of 
pain.^ 

Neither  the  sentiment  of  Amobius,  nor  that  of 
Lactantius,  on  this  subject,  though  difierent  from  each 
other,  appears  to  have  occasioned  any  complaint  or 
dissatisfaction.  Both  of  these  authors  acquired  con- 
siderable fame.  The  latter  was  the  most  elegant  and 
classical  writer  of  all  the  Latin  fathers  ;  and  the  fond 
partiality  of  his  admirers  has  ventured  to  compare  his 
style,  for  excellence,  with  that  of  Cicero. 

Resuming  the  history  of  Origen's  doctrine,  we 
discover  that,  in  addition  to  the  particulars  on  which 
Methodius  had  inveighed  against  him,  he  began  now 
to  be  accused  of  error  concerning  the  Trinity  and 
Incarnation.     To    the    former    of    these    points    the 


1  Lactantii  Institut.,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  20. 

2  Ditto,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  21.    Du  I^in  has  not  exactly  stated  Lactantius's  meaning 
here. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  137 

public  attention  had  been  awakened,  more  than  half  a 
century  before,  by  Origen's  own  controversy  with 
Beryllus ;  and  afterwards,  by  those  that  the  church 
carried  on  against  Noetus,  Sabellius,  and  Paul  of 
Samosata.  And  if,  as  is  thought,  Lucian,  a  learned 
presbyter  of  Antioch,  had  still  more  lately  advanced 
notions  contrary  to  Trinitarianism,  the  circumstance 
would  naturally  add  fresh  excitement  to  feelings 
already  on  the  alarm.  The  jealousy,  thus  roused  and 
cherished,  was  now  scrutinizing  every  form  of  ex- 
pression, in  order  to  detect  heresy  on  this  subject; 
though  the  self-constituted  censors  were  by  no  means 
clear  nor  unanimous  as  to  the  precise  point  they  them- 
selves would  regard  as  truth.  Many  began  to  dis- 
cover, in  the  writings  of  the  venerated  Origen,  ex- 
pressions inconsistent  with  their  favorite  tenet ;  and 
consequently  the  enmity  against  him,  which  had  hither- 
to been  confined  to  a  few  individuals,  instantly  spread 
to  a  considerable  extent.  Some  became  satisfied, 
perhaps  from  candid  examination,  that  if  he  w^ere 
not  really  heretical,  he  had  given  too  much  occa- 
sion to  error ;  but  others,  having  gathered  up  some 
of  his  more  adventurous  speculations  concerning 
the  Godhead,  broke  out  into  clamor,  and  pronounced 
him,  at  once,  a  heretic.  And  there  were  others 
again,  unable  to  read  the  Greek,  who  took  up 
against  him  on  mere  report ;  of  which,  as  usual  in 
such  cases,  the  loud  tone  of  hatred  and  abuse  was 
much  sooner  heard,  than  the  still,  small  voice  of  truth 
and  commendation.  They  accused  him  of  various 
and  opposite  errors ;  but  so  manifest  was  the  false- 
hood  of  most    of  their  charo^es    that   nothino^  could 


138  THE    ANCIENT   HISIOEY 

more  conclusively  demonstrate  the  imreasonable 
motives  of  the  attack.  So  high  did  the  indignation 
rise,  that  even  those  who  only  read  his  writings  or 
cherished  his  reputation  were  severely  censured.^ 

This  angry  commotion,  though  we  cannot  now 
ascertain  its  authors,  was  then  regarded  as  sufficiently 
formidable  to  require  a  public  defence  of  Origen ; 
and  two  distinguished  admirers  of  his  wi'itings,  who 
held  offices  in  the  church  where  he  himself  had 
flourished  sixty  or  seventy  years  before,  undertook 
the  work.  Pamphilus,  a  learned  presbyter  of  Cesarea 
in  Palestine,  and  Eusebius,  his  felloAV-presbyter,  the 
renowned  father  of  ecclesiastical  history, 

A.  D.  307  to  310.  *^  ' 

wrote  a  large  and  labored  Apology  for 
Origen;  in  part  of  which  they  stated,  and  thoroughly 
canvassed,  the  accusations  brought  against  his  doc- 
trine. Happily  for  us,  this  part,  which  was  the 
first  book  of  the  work,  is  still  extant,  in  the  Latin 
translation  of  Eufinus.  The  authors  formally  arrange 
the  charges  of  his  enemies  against  him,  in  the 
following  order :  "  1 .  They  \Jiis  accusers]  say  he 
asserted  that  the  Son  of  God  is  uubegotten  ;  2.  They 
accuse  him  of  teaching,  like  the  Yalcntinians, 
that  the  Son  of  God  came  into  existence  by 
emanation;  3.  They  charge  him,  contrary  to  the 
former  accusations,  of  holding  with  Artemas  and 
Paul  of  Samosata,  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
was  a  mere  man,  and  not  God ;  4.  Xext,  they 
contradict  all  these  charges  by  saying  (so  blind  is 
malice)   that  he  taught  that   it  was  only  in  appear- 

1  Pamphili  Pracfat.   ad  Apolog.    Pro   Origcne,  compared  with  Apolog.  cap.  v., 
etc.,  inter  Origenis  Opera,  edit.  Delarue,  torn.  iv. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  139 

ance  the  Saviour  performed  the  deeds  ascribed  to 
him,  and  that  the  history  of  him  is  but  an  allegory, 
not  a  reality;  5.  Another  charge  they  bring  is, 
that  he  taught  there  were  two  Christs ;  6.  They  add 
that  he  wholly  denied  the  literal  accounts  which 
the  Scriptures  give  of  the  lives  of  the  saints ;  7. 
They  calumniously  attack  him  on  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  and  the  punishment  of  the  impious ; 
accusing  him  of  denying  that  torments  are  to  be  in- 
flicted on  sinners ;  8.  They  censure  some  of  his  argu- 
ments or  opinions  concerning  the  soul  \tliat  is,  its 
pre-existence]  ;  9.  The  last  charge  of  all,  which  is 
circulated  in  every  shape  of  infamy,  is,  that  he 
asserted  that  human  souls  will,  after  death,  be 
changed  into  dumb  animals,  either  reptiles  or  quad- 
rupeds ;  and  also  that  brutes  have  rational  souls : 
which  charge  we  have  placed  last,  that  we  may 
collect  the  more  testimonies  from  his  books,  to 
render  the  falsehood  of  it  the  plainer.  "  Now,"  con- 
tinue they,  "observing  the  order  of  the  charges 
above  stated,  we  will  begin  with  the  first."  ^  They 
accordingly  proceed  with  them  in  course ;  and,  by 
adducing  copious  extracts  from  Origen's  own  writings, 
successfully  defend  him  from  each  of  the  accusations, 
except  the  eighth,  which  relates  to  the  pre-existence 
of  human  souls.  This,  they  admit,  was  truly  his 
sentiment ;  but  they  excuse  it,  as  being  probably 
correct,  or  at  least  of  no  consequence  even  if  er- 
roneous. 

We  cannot  discover,  in  all  this  afiair,  that  his  doc- 
trine of  Universal  Salvation  was  regarded  as  censura- 

1  Apolog.  pro  Origene,  cap.  v. 


140  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

ble ;  and  an  incidental  circumstance  shows  that  his 
learned  apologists  neither  knew  that  he  had  ever  been 
reproached  for  that  tenet,  nor  suspected  that  it  could 
occasion  any  odium  whatever.  For,  when  they  come 
to  defend  him  against  the  latter  item  in  the  seventh 
charge,  that  is,  against  the  charge  of  having  denied 
all  future  punishment,  they  select,  among  several 
other  testimonies  from  his  works,  two  distinct  para- 
graphs, in  wdiich  he  had,  as  usual,  spoken  of  torments 
to  be  hereafter  inflicted  by  fire ;  but  in  which  he,  at 
the  same  time,  represented  them  as  altogether  reme- 
dial:  "We  are  to  understand,"  said  he,  "that  God, 
our  physician,  in  order  to  remove  those  disorders 
which  our  souls  contract  from  various  sins  and  abomi- 
nations, uses  that  painful  mode  of  cure,  and  brings 
those  torments  of  fire  upon  such  as  have  lost  the 
health  of  the  soul,  just  as  an  earthly  physician,  in  ex- 
treme cases,  subjects  his  patients  to  cautery."  "And 
Isaiah  teaches  that  the  punishment  said  to  be  inflicted 
by  fire  is  very  needful ;  saying  of  Israel,  the  Lord 
shall  wash  aivay  the  filth  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
Zion,  and  purge  the  blood  from  their  midst,  by  the 
spirit  of  judgment,  and  the  spirit  of  burning.  (Isa. 
iv.  4),"etc.i 

This  testimony  from  Origen,  like  a  thousand  other 
passages  which  might  have  been  selected  from  his 
writings,  was,  indeed,  an  eflfectual  refutation  of  the 
particular  charge  brought  against  him  ;  but  it  was,  at 
the  same  time,  a  proof  that  he  regarded  future  punish- 
ment as  purifying  and  salutary.  Had  this  sentiment 
been  obnoxious  at  that  day,  Pamphilus  and  Eusebius 

1  Apol.  pro.  Origene,  cap.  viii. 


OF   UNIVEESALTSM.  141 

would  rather  have  avoided  such  passages  than  have 
obtruded  them,  thus  unnecessarily,  upon  the  attention 
of  his  captious  enemies  ;  lest,  in  defending  him  from 
an  accusation  so  easily  refuted,  they  should  bring 
upon  him  one  that  could  never  be  removed.  And  we 
may  add,  that  their  introducing  such  passages,  with- 
out remark,  while  maintaining  that  Origen  was  sound 
in  the  faith,  gives,  at  least,  some  color  of  probability 
to  the  charge  which  was  nearly  a  century  afterwards 
brought^  against  them,  of  holding  with  him  the  doc- 
trine of  Universal  Restitution  as  well  as  that  of  pre- 
existence.  Of  Pamphilus  there  is  nothing  else  ex- 
tant ;  so  that,  in  his  case,  this  appearance  can  neither 
be  confirmed  nor  removed.  And  it  would  probably 
be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  determine,  from  the 
numerous  works  which  Eusebius  afterwards  published, 
what  was  his  opinion  on  this  subject.^  Both,  how- 
ever, were  ardent  admirers  of  Origen's  writings ;  a 
large  part  of  which  the  former  had  laboriously  trans- 
cribed, with  his  own  hand,  for  a  famous  ecclesiastical 
library,  which  he  established  at  Cesarea.  The  two 
friends  had  likewise  published  corrected  copies  of  the 
Septuagint,  taken  from  the  Hexapla.  We  may  add, 
that  Eusebius  has  been  accused  of  holding  Origen's 
peculiar  notion,  that  human  bodies,  at  the  resurrec- 
tion, will  be  of  an  aerial  substance.^ 

1  By  Jerome,  lib.  ii.,  Adversus  Rufinum,  p.  407;  torn.  iv..  part  ii.,  edit.  Martia- 
nay ;  and  afterwards  by  an  anonymous  writer  of  the  sixth  century,  published  by 
R.  P.  Lupo.  See  Delarue's  Admonitio  in  Apolog.  S.  Pamphili  pro  Origene.  Both 
of  these  authors,  however,  seem  to  have  grossly  misrepresented,  at  least,  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case. 

2  I  have  not  access  to  all  the  works  of  Eusebius ;  but  judge  this  statement  cor- 
rect from  the  general  character  of  his  writings,  and  from  the  silence  of  all  the 
ancient  fathers  and  modern  critics. 

3  Photu  Epist.  144. 


142         '  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Pamphilus  was  thrown  into  prison  at  Cesarea,  in 
the  year  307,  by  the  heathen  persecutors  ;  and  Euse- 
bius  either  underwent  the  same  sentence,  or  volunta- 
rily shared  his  confinement.  It  was  here  that  the 
two  friends  began  the  Apology.  When  they  had 
proceeded  to  the  end  of  the  fifth  book,  Pamphilus  was 
led  forth  from  prison  to  martyrdom.  This  was  in 
the  year  309.  Eusebius  then  added  the  sixth,  or  last, 
book  to  the  common  work,  and  dedicated  the  whole 
to  those  Christians  who  were  condemned  to  labor  as 
slaves  in  the  mines  of  Palestine.^ 

Eusebius  survived  to  witness  the  most  eventful  and 
momentous  change  which  the  church  has  ever  experi- 
enced. He  was  elevated  to  the  bishopric  of  Cesarea, 
about  A.  D.  313,  when  Christianity  first  received  a  full 
and  efiectual  toleration;  and,  in  succeeding  years,  he 
beheld  it  continually  rising  in  the  favor  of  Constan- 
tine,  till  it  was,  at  length,  declared  the  estab- 
lished religion  of  the  empire.  Amidst  the 
scenes  of  security  and  worldly  splendor  which  now 
succeeded  the  long  and  tempestuous  reign  of  persecu- 
tion, the  Bishop  of  Cesarea,  high  in  the  imperial  favor, 
often  looked  back,  in  tender  remembrance,  to  his 
early  associate  and  martyred  friend ;  and  as  a  testi- 
monial of  an  affection  which  neither  time  nor  honors 
could  extinguish,  he  wrote  his  life,  and  took  upon 
himself  the  surname  of  Pamphilus.  That  his  admira- 
tion also  of  Origen  did  not  diminish  with  increasing 
years,  we  find  ample  proof  in  his  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, and  in  his  succeeding  works.  He  was,  by  far, 
the  most  learned  bishop  of  his  time ;    and,  what  is 

1  Delarue  Admonit.  in  Apolog.  pro  Origene. 


OF    UJS'lVEIlSALl^M.  143 

greater  praise,  lie  was  moderate  and  unaspiring,  in  an 
age  of  clerical  violence  and  ambition.  Though  the 
favorite  of  Constantine,  he  never  abused  his  influence 
either  for  personal  or  party  purposes  ;  and  when  the 
great  bishopric  of  Antioch  was  ofiered  him,  on  the 
deposition  of  Eustathius,  he  declined  exchanging  his 
own  diocese  of  Cesarea  for  that  of  all  the  East,  the 
third  for  dignity  in  Christendom. 

The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  disturbed  by  the 
unholy  and  cruel  contest  which  began  to  rage  between 
the  Arians  and  Trinitarians ;  in  which  he  often  con- 
curred in  the  measures  of  the  former,  though  he  did 
not  approve  their  doctrine.  They  were,  in  his  time, 
the  injured  party.  AVhether  his  vieT>^s  on  the  con- 
tested question  itself  were  fully  orthodox  is  disputed ; 
and  it  is  certain  that,  in  the  famous  council  of  Nice, 
he  not  only  urged  the  petulant  bishops  to  adopt  such 
a  Declaration  of  Faith  as  both  parties  could  receive, 
but  that  he  also  refused  to  subscribe  their  Creed, 
except  with  an  interpretation  of  his  own.^ 

The  Arian  controversy,  to  which  we  have  just  al- 
luded, began  at  Alexandria,  about  a.  d.  317,  bring- 
ing a  dark  cloud  over  the  church  in  the  very  morning 
of  her  political  establishment.  It  spread  instantly, 
like  a  conflagration,  over  all  'Egypt,  and  soon  involved 
Europe  and  Asia.  The  great  and  imposing  synod  of 
all  Christendom,  which  assembled  a.  d.  325,  at  Nice, 
in  Asia  Minor,  was  called  together  by  the  Emperor, 
with  the  vain  hope  of  determining  this  dispute  ;  but, 
though  it  managed  to  decide  against  Arius  by  an  al- 

^  Jortin  (Remarks  on  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  iii.)  treats  largely  and  impartially  of  Eu- 
sebius's  character 


144  THE    ANCIENT    IIISTOnY 

most  unanimous  decree,  that  the  Son  v/as  Consubstak- 
TiAii  with  the  Father,  it  resulted  only  in  dignifying 
the  contention,  and  enraging  the  temper  of  the  i3arti- 
sans.  These  separated  into  three  divisions  :  the  Con- 
substantialists,  or  patrons  of  the  Nicene  Creed ;  the 
Semi" Avians,  a  sort  of  imperfect  Trinitarians  ;  and  the 
Avians,  who  held  that  Christ  was  a  created  being.  A 
most  disgraceful  scene  followed,  till  toward  the  close 
of  this  century.  Council  against  council  assembled, 
and  deliberately  opposed  falsehood  to  falsehood,  and 
fraud  to  fraud  ;  deposition  and  excommunication  were 
decreed,  as  either  party  gained  a  momentary  ascen- 
dancy in  the  church  ;  the  imperial  authority  obsequi- 
ously enforced  the  mad  decrees  alternately  of  each 
sect,  till  it  filled  the  deserts  of  Egypt  and  the  remote, 
regions  of  the  empire  with  exiled  bishops ;  and  the 
furious  rabble,  on  both  sides,  resorted  at  length  to 
riots  and  massacres,  to  gratify  their  revenge,  or  to 
exercise  their  malicious  zeal.  The  heathens,  from 
whom  the  power  of  persecution  had  been  so  lately 
wrested,  might  have  consoled  themselves  in  prospect 
of  its  being  more  efiectually  exerted  in  the  self-de- 
stroying hands  of  a  divided  and  factious  national 
church. 

Into  this  scene  of  contention  we  must  now  follow  the 
history   of  Oris^en's    doctrine.     It   does 

A.  D.  320  to  360.  ^.11  .         , 

not,  mcieeci,  appear  to  have  been,  at 
first,  so  deeply  implicated  as  some  writers  represent. 
The  virulent  attacks  from  which  Pamphiliis  and 
Eusebius  had  defended  him  seem  to  have  subsided ; 
and  all  the  concern  that  his  name  or  his  writings 
had  with  the  grand  controversy,  till  some  time  past 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  145 

the  middle  of  this  century,  maybe  described  in  a  few 
words.  As  his  great  authority  would  give  consider- 
able advantage  to  any  cause  in  which  it  was  exerted, 
the  several  parties  gladly  availed  themselves  of  it, 
whenever  it  could  be  brought  to  operate  in  their 
favor ;  but  on  the  contrary,  when  it  seemed  to  oppose 
their  views,  they  would  naturally  endeavor  to  depre- 
ciate it.  The  Arians,  however,  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  very  confident  of  securing  the  patronage  of  his 
name,  though  some  of  them  claimed  him  for  then- 
own.  But  of  the  two  other  parties,  the  Semi-Arians 
were  generally  his  professed  admirers  ;  and  the  Con- 
substantialists ,  also,  appealed  to  his  testimony,  as  full 
and  explicit  upon  their  own  side.  So  far  as  we  know, 
only  one  of  them.  Mar cellus,. Bishop  of  Ancyra  in 
Galatia,  incidentally  impeached  the  soundness  of  his 
faith  concerning  the  Trinity.^  This  was  about  a.  d. 
330.  But  he  was  an  author  whose  complaint  could 
have  little  weight,  as  it  was  suspected  that  his 
zeal  against  the  damnable  heresy  of  Arius  had  pre- 
cipitated him,  on  the  other  hand,  into  the  perdition 
of  Sabellianism.  We  must  here  digress  so  far  as  to 
mention  that  Marcellus  seems  also  to  have  held  the 
doctrine  of  universal  salvation,  or  at  least  to  have 
used  its  language.^  To  return,  however,  to  the  Arian 
controvers}^ :  the  guardian  genius  of  the  Nicene 
faith,  the  great  and  intrepid  Athanasius,  always 
quoted  Origen  as  orthodox ;  Hilary  of  Poictiers  in 
France,  the  ablest   and  most  active  defender  of  the 

1  Eusebii  contra  Marcell.,  lib.  i.    See  Dvi  Piu's  Biblioth.  Patr.,  art.  Eusebins 
Pampbilus. 

2  Neancler  Allgem.  Geschichte  dev  Christl.  Kal.  und  Kirche,  Band  ii.,  s.  609. 
He  quotes  Eusebius  contra  Marcell.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  2  and  4,  which  I  h^^^*^  -^'^^  - 


146  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

same  faith,  in  the  West,  became  an  imitator  of  his 
writings ;  and  so  did  Eusebius  Vercellensis,^  another 
Athauasian  bishop  of  distinction,  who  presided  over 
the  churches  scattered  round  the  sources  of  tlie 
modern  Po,  in  Italy.  This  example  of  their  leaders 
w^as  followed  by  most  of  the  party.  Some  years 
afterwards,  or  about  a.  d.  370,  when  Basil  the  Great, 
Didymus,  and  the  two  Gregories  Nazianzen  and  Nys- 
sen,  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Consubstantialists  in  the 
East,  we  find  them  among  Origen's  warmest  admirers, 
defendino:  him  from  the  occasional  claims  of  the 
Arians.  This  sketch,  though  brief,  is  a  pretty  full 
account  of  the  treatment  his  name  experienced  in  the 
Arian  dispute,  till  a.  d.  360,  and  indeed  till  several 
years  later. 

On  certain  other  subjects,  however,  not  immediately 
connected  with  the  main  controversy,  he  was  once 
attacked,  during  this  period,  with  a  very  angry 
spirit,  by  Eustathius,  an  eminent  orthodox  bishop  of 
the  East.  This  prelate  had  been  translated  from  the 
bishopric  of  Beroea,  the  modern  Aleppo,  to  the  great 
see  of  Antioch,  about  the  time  of  the  Nicene  council ; 
but  in  A.  D.  330,  he  was  deposed  by  an  Arian  fac- 
tion, and,  as  we  have  observed,  his  archbishopric  was 
oflered,  though  in  vain,  to  Eusebius  Pamphilus,  who 
had  concurred  with  his  adversaries.  Whether  it  was 
after  this  deposition,  th^it  Eustathius  made  his  attack 
upon  Origen,  cannot  be  determined ;  nor  whether  it 
was  his  motive  to  mortify  his  hated  rival  of  Cesarea, 
by  bringing  a  general  odium  on  the  favorite  father, 

1  Ilieronymi  Epist.  Ixxiv.  ad  Angustin.,  torn,  iv.,  part  ii..  p.  627;    and  Epist. 
xxxvi.  ad  Vigilant.,  p.  27G. 


OF   UNIVEES ALISM.  -       147 

Tvhom  that  learned  historian  had  so  highly  extolled. 
But  he  published,  at  what  time  is  unknown/  a  treatise 
against  Origen,  in  which  he  assailed  him  with  much  as- 
perity, and  foolishly  charged  him  with  lying  against  the 
Scriptures  and  with  endeavoring  to  introduce  idolatry 
and  magic  into  the  church.  The  professed  object  of 
his  book  was,  like  that  of  the  Pythoness  of  Methodius, 
to  prove  that  it  was  not  the  soul  of  the  prophet 
Samuel  that  the  Witch  of  Endor  raised,  as  Origen 
had  somewhere  asserted,  but  only  a  phantom  pro- 
duced by  the  imposture  of  the  devil.  He  frequently 
takes  occasion,  however,  to  rail  against  several  other 
notions  of  Origen,  particularly  against  his  views  of 
the  resurrection,  and  his  extravagant  allegories.  Of 
the  latter  he  recites  and  misrepresents  numerous 
instances,  with  the  manifest  design  to  expose  his 
doctrine  in  the  worst  possible  light ;  but  in  all  this 
learned  bishop's  reproaches,  which  fell  even  upon 
Origen's  style  of  writing,  Universalism,  it  seems, 
escaped  with  impunity.^  And  what  is  equally  remark- 
able, this  was  likewise  the  case  amidst  all  the  clamor 
of  the  Arian  controversy,  so  far  as  we  have  just 
surveyed  it. 

The  next  attack  upon  him  was  that  of  Apollinarius 
the  Younger,  a  learned  bishop  and  distinguished  writer 
of  Laodicea  in  Phrygia,  who  was  afterwards  con- 
demned for  Sabellianism.     He  is  said  to  have  written 

1  There  is  much  uncertainty  in  the  history  of  Eustathius.  Some  think  he  died 
about  A.  D.  337 ;  others  that  he  lived  till  about  A.  D.  360.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Litera- 
ria,  and  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Patr.,  art.  Eustathius. 

2  Eustath.  de  Engrastrimytho,  adverses  Origenem.  I  have  not  been  able  to  find 
this  book,  and  have  therefore  drawn  ray  account  from  the  notices  of  it  scattered 
through  Huetii  Origeniana,  and  from  Du  Pin's  abstract,  Biblioth.  Patr.,  art. 
Eustathius. 


148  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

against  Origen,  uot  far,  probably,  from  a.  d.  360 ; 
but  on  what  points  is  unknown,  except  that  it  was  not 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. ^  This  completes-  the 
account  of  censures  on  his  sentiments,  till  we  arrive 
at  the  year  376,  when  the  attack  of  Epiphanius  will 
come  under  our  notice. 

Such  was  the  general  character  of  the  proceedings 
relative  to  Origen  and  his  sentiments,  and  such  the 
peculiar  circumstances  and  facts  we  have  narrated,  as 
to  show,  satisfactorily,  that  the  doctrine  of  Universal 
Restoration  was  regarded,  in  the  church,  as  neither 
heretical  nor  even  unpopular ;  and  that  the  standard 
of  orthodoxy,  so  far  as  it  concerned  that  particular 
point,  was  then  supposed  to  require  only  a  belief  in 
future  punishment.  Still,  we  must  not  thence  con- 
clude that  the  fathers  of  this  age  were,  in  general,  de- 
cided Universalists.  Many  of  them  had,  probably,  no 
definite  opinion  at  all  upon  a  subject  which  had  never 
undergone  the  ordeal  of  controversy;  and  several 
would  seem  to  have  believed  in  endless  misery.  This 
will  be  sufficiently  apparent,  if  we  select  some  of  the 
strongest  expressions  which  the  more  distinguished  of 
them  used  respecting  the  fate  of  the  damned.     Every- 


1  Theophilj  Alexandrini  Paschal.,  lib.  i.,  inter  Hieronymi  Opera,  torn,  iv., 
p.  694,  edit.  Martianay;  and  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  13. 

2  Cave  mistakes  when  he  says,  in  his  Life  of  Origen,  §  29  (Lives  of  the  Fathers), 
that  Athanasius  indirectly  condemned  his  notion  of  the  end  of  hell  tonnents ;  for 
the  piece  to  which  he  refers  (Testimonia  ex  Sac.  Script,  de  Nat.  Commun.  simil. 
Essent.  inter  Pat.  et  Fil.  et  Spirit.  Sanct.)  is  not  Athanasius's,  but  a  much  later 
author's.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Literaria,  and  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  Athanasius, 
and  the  Benedictine  Editors'  Preface  to  that  piece  in  Athanasii  Opera,  torn,  ii.,  p.  3. 

If  Huet  (Origeniana,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  i.,  §  5)  alluded,  as  I  think  he  did,  to 
Vitae  Sancti  Antonii,  cap.  75,  for  Athanasius's  covert  censure  of  Origen's  notion 
of  the  lapse  of  souls,  he  also  mistook;  for  the  passage  regards  only  the  notions  of 
heathens  on  that  point,  not  Origen's. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  149 

body  knows  tliat  the  first,  in  influence, 

^  .  ,       -,  1   .  .  A.  D.  a47  to  370. 

among  the  orthodox  at  this  time,  Avas 
Athanasius :  "Repent,"  says  he,  "lest  at  any  time 
your  soul  should  be .  snatched  away  b}^  death ;  for 
none  can  deliver  those  who,  on  account  of  their  sins, 
are  confined  in  hell."^  Yet  the  same  author  held  that 
Christ  descended  to  hell,  or  the  place  of  the  dead, 
after  his  crucifixion,  and  released  the  saints  of  the  old 
dispensation,  and  likewise  the  souls  of  such  Gentiles 
as  had,  before  his  coming,  lived  virtuously  according 
to  the  light  of  nature.^  This,  too,  was  the  opinion  of 
Cyrill,^  Bishop  of  Jerusalem ;  whom  we  might  also 
pronounce  a  believer  in  endless  misery,  if  his  frequent 
application  of  the  word  everlasting  to  punishment 
were  proof.  At  the  future  coming  of  Christ  to  the 
general  judgment,  then  just  at  hand,  and  which  is 
described,  he  thinks,  in  the  last  chapter  of  Daniel,  and 
in  the  twenty-fourth  and  twenty-fifth  of  St.  Matthew, 
the  just  were  to  be  admitted  to  eternal  life,  and  the 
wicked  consigned  to  everlasting  fii'e.'^  We  may 
venture,  nevertheless,  to  assert  that  neither  of  those 
two  bishops  regarded  Universalism  ^ith  any 
antipathy.  Ephraim  the  Syrian,  a  gloomy,  rigid, 
and  somewhat  fanatical  monk  of  Mesopotamia,  but 
still  a  very  eminent  ^vriter,  asserted  that  "  there  is 
no  confession  in  hell ;  no  tears,  no  groans,  can  there 
avert  the  sentence  of  the  Judge.  There  will  no 
longer  be  any  time  to  repent.  There  is  no  return 
after  death ;   but  everything  terrible  and  severe  falls 

1  Athanasii  Exposit.  in  Psalm  xlis.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1086,  edit.  Paris,  1698. 

2  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  Athanasius. 

2  Cyrilli  Hiei-osolymit.,  Catechesis  iv.,  cap.  8;  and  Catechesis  Mystagogica  v. 
*  Catechesis  xv. 


150  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

on  those  who  have  lost  the  opportunity  for  repent- 
ance." ^  In  the  AYestern  church,  the  celebrated 
Hilary,  Bishop  of  Poictiers,  taught,  with  a  slight  varia- 
tion from  what  Lactantius  had  advanced,  that  in  the 
general  judgment  neither  the  pious  nor  the  infidels 
are  to  be  arraigned ;  because  Christ  had  said,  He  that 
believeth  on  me  shall  not  he  judged,  and,  he  that  be- 
lleveth  not  is  condemned  already.  The  judgment, 
accordingly,  shall  be  for  those  only  who  hold  a  middle 
grade  between  these  two  characters.^  And  such,  he 
probably  held,  would  be  saved,  after  suffering  the  ar- 
rears due  them  from  justice ;  while  the  case  of  the 
obstinate  infidels  would  be  utterly  hopeless.  But  still 
it  was  his  opinion  that  all  mankind,  even  the  very 
holiest,  must  pass  through  the  intense  and  painful 
fire  of  the  general  conflagration  :  the  Virgin  Mary  her- 
self cannot  be  exempted  from  this  terrible  purification  ; 
for  Simeon  had  forewarned  her,  that  a  sword  should 
pierce  her  own  soul  also.  (Luke  ii.  35.)^  As  Hilary 
had  been  an  exile  in  Phrygia,  he  may  have  obtained 
some  of  these  notions  among  the  Eastern  Christians  ; 
and  perhaps  from  Origen's  w^orks  in  particular,  which 
he  certainly  admired  and  imitated. 

Another  writer  among  the  orthodox  of  the  West, 
Fabius  Marius  Victorinus,  uses  language 

A.  D.  350  to  370.  1  1^-         I 

which  seems  to  express  the  ultimate  pu- 
rification and  holiness  of  all  intelligent  natures  ;  yet, 
as  he  introduces  it  but  incidentally,  and  in  a  very 
blind  illustration  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  we  ought 


1  Ephraem  Syri,  lib.  De  Extremo  Judicio,  cap.  4. 

2  Hilarii  Enarratio  in  Psalm  i. 

8  Enarratio  in  Psalm  cxviii..  liter,  Gimel. 


OF    U^IVERSALISM.  151 

not,  perhaps,  to  rely  on  it  as  absolute  proof  of  his 
views  on  the  former  point.  We  despair  of  giving  any 
intelligible  translation  of  his  argument  in  its  relation 
to  the  Trinity.  In  it,  however,  he  contends  that  Christ, 
or  the  Logos,  who  is  the  active  power  of  God,  created 
all  things,  and  will  regenerate  all  things.  By  the  life 
that  is  in  him,  and  which  is  universally  diffused,  all 
things  will  be  purged  and  return  into  eternal  life. 
He  is  to  subject  all  things  to  himself,  whether  men,  or 
principalities,  or  powers,  in  order  that  God  may  be- 
come all  in  all.  When  this  shall  have  been  accom- 
plished, God  will  be  all  things  ;  because  all  things  will 
be  full  of  God.  All  things,  adds  he,  will  still  exist ; 
but  God  will  exist  in  them.^  Such  is  the  tenor  of  his 
representations  on  this  subject.  It  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark that,  in  a  poem,  he  applies  the  epithet  ceternus, 
or  everlasting,  to  the  fire  of  future  punishment.^ 

Victorinus  was  an  African  by  birth,  but  became  a 
distinguished  pagan  rhetorician  at  Rome,  where  he 
was  so  much  admired,  that  a  statue  was  erected  to 
him  in  one  of  the  public  places  of  the  city.  After  he 
had  taught  there  many  years,  and  had  grown  old,  he 
was  converted  to  Christianity,  about  a.  d.  350.  He 
wrote  several  works,  chiefly  in  defence  of  Trinitarian- 
ism,  and  against  the  Manicheans  ;  and  died  about  the 
year  370.^ 

There  were,  at  this  time,  some  decided  Universal- 


1  F.  Marii  Victorini  AM.  Adv.  Arium,  lib.  i.  et  iii.  I  find  the  work  in  a  collec- 
tion of  tracts  of  the  ancient  fathers,  entitled  Antidotum  contra  diversas  omnium 
fere  Seculorum  Hcereses,  Basil,  1528;  see  pp.  52,  63,  64. 

2  Ut  Supra,  De  Machabceis,  p.  81,  etc. 

3  For  the  account  of  his  Ufe,  see  Du  Pin's  Bib.  Pat.,  art.  Victorinus  of  Africk. 
Murdt)ck's  Mosheim,  vol.  i.,  p.  309. 


152  THE    ANCIEXT   HISTORY 

ists    among   the    orthodox   bishops    and 


A.  D.  360  to  370. 


writers,  especially  of  the  East.  About 
forty  miles  east  of  the  river  Jordan,  beyond  the  hilly 
tract  of  the  ancient  Perea,  the  traveller  descends  upon 
a  spacious,  barren  plain,  where  vestiges  of  forgotten 
towns  appear  here  and  there,  and  a  few  sunken  reser- 
voirs still  supply  the  wandering  hordes  and  the  regu- 
lar caravans  with  water  preserved  from  the  winter 
torrents.  Traversing  this  neglected  waste  to  the  dis- 
tance of  a  dozen  or  fifteen  miles  still  eastward,  he  ar- 
rives at  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  city,  near  the  borders 
of  the  Desert  Arabia.  Fragments  of  the  old  walls, 
remains  of  a  splendid  temple,  of  triumphal  arches, 
of  a  church  and  monastery,  and  of  a  great  mosque, 
together  with  numberless  pillars  broken  and  lying 
among  rose-trees  in  bloom,  indicate  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Bostra.^  In  the  fourth  century  it  was  a  popu- 
lous city,  the  capital  of  a  small  province  to  which  the 
vanity  of  the  Roman  conquerors  had  arrogantly  appro- 
priated the  name  of  Arabia.  At  the  period  of  which  we 
write,  Titus,  a  bishop  of  considerable  eminence,  pre- 
sided here,  over  the  churches  in  this  district,  and  num- 
bered among  his  own  Christian  flock  half  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  city.  Though  he  appears  to  have  published 
several  works,  none  remains  except  part  of  his  books 
Against  the  Alanicheans^  written,  it  is  thought,  about 
A.  D.  364.  He  says  that  the  "  abyss  of  hell  is,  indeed, 
the  place  of  torment ;  but  it  is  not  eternal,  nor  did  it 
exist  in  the  original  constitution  of  nature.  It  was 
made  afterwards,  as  a  remedy  for  sinners,  that  it  might 

1  D'Anville's  Ancient  Geography,  vol.  i.,  p.  425;   and  Burckhardt's  Travels  in 
^     -         .  .V  .  TT„,..  T^and^  pp.  226—236,  London,  1822. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  153 

cure  them.  And  the  punishments  are  holy,  as  they 
are  remedial  and  saUitary  in  their  effect  on  trans- 
gressors ;  for  they  are  inflicted,  not  to  presei^ve  them 
in  their  wickedness,  but  to  make  them  cease  from 
their  wickedness.  The  ano^uish  of  their  suflTerin^ 
compels  them  to  break  oif  their  vices."  '  His  treat- 
ment of  this  point,  after  passing  unreproached  through 
all  the  contests  of  antiquity,  has,  in  modern  ages, 
attracted  the  notice  of  our  ecclesiastical  critics,  and 
engaged  them  in  the  contrary  attempts  of  exposing, 
and  of  exculpating,  the  author.^  It  is  remarkable 
that  he  contended  that  death,  as  well  as  every  other 
dispensation  of  Providence,  was  designed  for  the 
benefit  both  of  the  just  and  of  the  unjust,^  and  that 
he  maintained  against  the  Manicheans  that,  even  in 
this  world,  mankind  are  happy  or  miserable  according 
to  their  virtue  or  vice.  With  the  doctrine  of  orisfinal 
sin  he  seems  to  have  been  utterly  unacquainted  ;  and 
he  supposed  that  human  agency  was  fully  adequate, 
without  any  supernatural  control,  to  do  good  as  well 
as  evil."* 

Of  the  events  of  his  life  we  know  little  more  than 
that,  like  most  of  the  distinguished  orthodox  bishops 
of  this  time,  he  was  honored  with  the  notice  and  the 


1  Titi  Bostriensis  contra  Manicbaeos,  lib.  i.,  p.  85.  N.  B.  —  This  work  is  pub- 
lished  only  in  Canisii  Lector,  and  in  the  great  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  to  neither  of 
which  I  have  access.  I  therefore  quote  from  Ceilleir's  Histoire  des  Auteurs  Sacres 
et  Ecclesiastiques.  torn,  vi.,  chap.  6,  p.  54. 

2  Tillemont,  though  a  most  strenuous  defender  of  the  fathers,  is  candid  enough 
to  acknowledge  (Memoires  Eccl.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  671)  that  "  Titus  seems  to  have  fol- 
lowed the  dangerous  error  ascribed  to  Origen,  that  the  pains  of  the  damned,  and 
even  those  of  the  demons  themselves,  will  not  be  eternal."  But  Ceilleir  has  the 
hardihood  to  plead  that  the  passage  is  not  clear,  etc. 

3  Contra  Manich.,  lib.  ii.,  pp.  107,  112.    See  the  quotations  in  Ceilleir,  p.  51. 
*  Du  Pin's  BibUotheca  Pat.,  art.  Titus  of  Bostra. 


154  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

persecution  of  the  Emperor  Julian.  In  the  year  362 
this  zealous  apostate  endeavored  to  excite  the  people 
of  Bostra  to  expel  their  bishop  ;  but  the  influence  of 
the  prelate  seems  to  have  prevailed  over  the  exhorta- 
tion of  the  sovereign,  and  the  malicious  attempt  proved 
inefiectual.  On  the  accession  of  Jovian  to  the  em- 
pire, A.  D.  363,  Titus  attended  the  council  of  Antioch 
under  Meletius  ;  and,  though  his  name  appears,  with 
those  of  some  other  orthodox  bishops,  among  the  sub- 
scriptions to  a  Semi-Arian  explanation  of  the  Nicene 
Creed, ^  he  nevertheless  seems  to  have  been  considered 
one  of  the  Athanasian  party.  He  died,  it  is  thought, 
about  A.  D.  370. 

More  learned  and  classical  than  Athanasius,  and 
next  to  him  in  weight  of  authority  among  the 
orthodox  of  the  East,  was  Basil  the  Great, 
Bishop  of  Cesarea,  in  Cappadocia.  With  a  constitu- 
tion natarally  feeble,  and  broken,  moreover,  by  monk- 
ish austerities,  he  possessed  a  strong  mind,  a  cour- 
ageous resolution,  a  temper  active,  but  too  ambitious, 
and  an  eloquence  of  a  manly  and  noble  kind.  Of  his 
views  respecting  the  doctrine  under  consideration,  we 
cannot  pronounce  with  confidence,  as  his  language  is 
not  uniform,  nor  always  reconcilable.  He  repeatedly 
states,  at  considerable  length,  that  those  who,  after 
baptism,  indulge  in  sins,  however  heinous,  and  die  un- 
der the  guilt  of  them,  are  to  be  purified  in  the  fire  of 
the  general  judgment ;  ^  distinguishing  them,  however, 
from  such  as  have  never  professed  Christianity.  Yet, 
at  another  time,  while  admonishing  one  of  those  very 

1  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  21. 

2  Basilii  Comment,  in  cap.  iv.  4,  Esaiae,  and  cap.  xi.,  16,  etc.,  edit.  Paris,  1637. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  155 

characters,  he  conceals  that  notion,  and  for  the  sake, 
perhaps,  of  striking  the  greater  terror,  asserts  that 
their  future  torments  "will  have  no  end,"  and  that 
"there  is  no  release,  no  way  to  flee  from  them  after 
death,  ^^ow  is  the  time  in  which  we  are  allowed  to 
escape  them."  ^  On  the  contrary,  again,  he  sometimes 
represents  the  purifying  and  salutarj^  operation  of  fu- 
ture fire  or  punishment  as  extending,  without  distinc- 
tion, to  guilty  souls  in  general.  Commenting  on  these 
words  of  Isaiah  (ix.  19,  Septuagint  version) ,  because 
of  the  icratli  of  the  Lord,  the  ivhole  earth  is  Tcindled 
into  flame,  and  the  people  shall  he  as  though  they  were 
burnt  up  ivith  fire,  Basil  says,  "The  prophet  declares 
that,  for  the  benefit  of  the  soul,  the  earthly  things  are 
to  be  consumed  by  penal  fire  ;  even  as  Christ  himself 
intimates,  saying,  I  have  come  to  send  fire  upon  the 
earth ;  what  would  /,  except  that  it  be  kindled  ?  "  (Luke 
xii.  49.)  And  the  prophet  adds,  'Hhe  people  shall  be 
as  though  they  were  burnt  up  with  fire;  he  does  not 
threaten  an  absolute  extermination,  but  intimates  a 
purification,  according  to  the  sentiment  of  the  apostle, 
that  if  any  one's  work  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss, 
but  he  himself  shall  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire."  (1 
Cor.  iii.  15.)^  From  this  solitary  passage  we  can 
only  suspect  that  our  author  was,  at  times,  inclined  to 
Universalism. 

His  ^  own  brother,  the  Bishop  of  Nyssa,  was  a  Uni- 

1  Basilii  Epist.  and  Virginem  lapsam,  torn,  iii.,  p.  18. 

2  Basilii  Comment,  in  cap.  ix.  19,  Esaiae.  If  the  Regulae  Breviores  be  Basil's, 
he  there  (Interrog.  267)  labored  to  reconcile  the  absolute  eternity  of  punishment 
■with  the  fact  that  some  shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes,  and  others  with  few. 
But  this  piece  has  been  ascribed  to  Eustathius  of  Sebastea  (see  Du  Pin's  Biblio- 
theca  Pat.,  art.  Basil),  a  cotemporary  with  Basil.  Whoever  the  author  was,  he 
certainly  meant  to  be  considered  a  behever  in  strictly  endless  misery. 


156  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

versalist ;  and  his  most  intimate  friend,  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen,  niay  in  some  degree  merit  that  appellation. 
Like  them,  Basil  was  also  a  professed  admirer  of 
Origen's  writings ;  and,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
latter,  he  selected  from  them  and  published  a  volume 
of  choice  extracts,  consisting  of  such  passages  as  the 
two  friends  most  highly  valued.  It  is  a  gratification 
to  light  on  circumstances  that  seem  to  connect  the 
writers  of  this  age  with  earlier  fiithers,  to  whose  ac- 
quaintance we  have  been  introduced  at  a  former  pe- 
riod. Basil  was  brought  up  in  the  metropolis  of 
Cappadocia,  and  perhaps  in  the  very  church  where 
Firmilian  presided  a  century  before.  His  grand- 
mother, Macrina,  under  whom  he  received  his  juve- 
nile education  and  his  first  impressions  of  piety,  had 
been,  in  her  youth,  a  hearer  of  Gregory  Thaumatur- 
gus,  in  Pontus  ;  for  whom  she  inspired  her  young 
scholar  with  a  profound  and  lasting  veneration.  He 
himself,  in  middle  life,  spent  some  time  as  a  monk  in 
the  solitudes  adjacent  to  the  ancient  residence  of  the 
famous  Wonderworker ;  and  soon  afterwards,  on  his 
return  to  Cappadocia  in  the  year  370,  he  was  ordained 
over  the  same  bishopric  which  Firmilian  had  once 
governed. 

In  his  general  system  of  doctrine,  there  was  nothing 
that  can  have  struck  his  cotemporaries  as  very  pecu- 
liar. Thous^h  addicted  to  the  alleo^orical  mode  of  in- 
terpreting  the  Scriptures,  he  was  quite  moderate  in  this 
respect,  compared  with  some  others  of  that  age.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  that  he  approached  nearer  to  the 
notion  of  original  and  total  depravity  than  had  any 
of  the  earlier  fathers  ;  though  he  still  fell  short  of  the 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  157 

modern  standard,  and  was  what  we  should  now  call 

an  Arminian. 

« 

In  early  life  he  travelled  extensively,  studying  at 
Cesarea  in  Palestine,  at  Constantinople,  at  Athens, 
and  finally  in  the  monasteries  of  Egypt.  Here  he 
was  initiated  into  the  monastic  life ;  for  which,  like 
most  of  his  cotemporaries,  he  always  maintained  a 
zealous  attachment.  Like  them,  too,  he  formed  his 
views  of  practical  religion  by  the  false  standard  of 
that  perverse  and  fanatical  discipline. 

That  class  of  devotees,  to  which  we  have  once  or 
twice  alluded,  the  monks,  had  now  be- 

_      ^  A.  D.  870  to  376 

come  numerous  m  many  parts  of  the 
East,  where  their  unnatural  mode  of  life  began  to  be 
held  in  general  veneration,  and  to  be  patronized 
by  nearly  all  the  bishops  and  doctors.  Athanasius, 
Basil,  Ephraim  the  Syrian,  the  two  Gregories, 
Epiphanius,  and  others,  were  its  strenuous  advo- 
cates. It  had  been  very  lately  introduced,  with  great 
success,  into  the  desert  parts  of  Palestine,  Syria, 
Pontus,  and  Mesopotamia  ;  but  to  Egypt  belonged  the 
glory,  or  more  truly  the  dishonor,  both  of  its  origin 
and  of  its  rapid  growth  to  maturity.  A  century  be- 
fore the  present  period,  one  or  two  individuals  fled 
from  the  heathen  persecutions  into  the  frightful  wastes 
that  border  the  long,  narrow  tract  of  vegetation  watered 
by  the  Nile.  Habit  and  a  mistaken  devotion  gave 
them  a  relish,  at  length,  for  what  necessity  had  thus 
forced  upon  them ;  and  they  continued  to  follow,  from 
choice,  a  kind  of  life  more  suited  to  the  reptiles,  their 
associates,  than  to  human  beings.  Their  example,  so 
congenial  with  the  absurd  notions  of  the  times,  drew 


158  THE    ANCIENT   HTSTORY 

many  after  tliem.  Multitudes  succeeded  multitudes  ; 
till  the  numl3er  of  monks,  in  that  countiy  alone,  had 
now  increased  to  tens  of  thousands,  all  governed  by 
established  rules,  and  forming  an  institution  which 
was  thought  the  brightest  ornament  of  the  church. 

Among  them  we  discover  that,  about  this  time,  a 
considerable  body  had  become  distinguished  by  an 
appellation  which  seems  to  have  been  but  newly 
introduced;  that  of  Origenists.^  These  were,  of 
course,  certain  followers  of  Origen.  The  name, 
however,  of  every  indefinite  application  probably  at 
first,  did  by  no  means  extend  to  all  his  admirers,  nor 
even  to  all  his  imitators ;  for  though  the  celebrated 
fathers,  Gregory  Nyssen,  Didymus,  and  Jerome,  were 
known  to  be  of  the  latter  class,  it  does  not  appear 
that  they  were  considered,  till  after  many  years,  as 
belonging  to  the  particular  party  under  considera- 
tion.^ What  distinguished  the  Origenists,  properly 
so  called,  from  other  avowed  disciples  of  their  master, 
cannot  be  ascertained ;  perhaps  it  was  some  special 
combination  among  themselves  for  party  purposes,  or 
a  more  clamorous  zeal  in  urging  their  designations. 
That  they  were,  in  some  sense,  a  specific  party, 
appears  from  the  circumstance  of  their  sectarian 
denomination ;  but  it  should  be  remarked,  that  they 
were  as  yet  in  the  full  fellowship  of  the  orthodox 
communion,  and  that  they  seem  to  have  been  scattered 


^  Epiphanii  Panarium,  Haeres.  Ixiv.,  §  3.  This  is  the  earliest  passage  in  which  I 
have  found  that  appellation. 

2  In  proof  of  this,  among  many  other  facts,  is  that  of  Jerome's  contention  with 
some  Origenists  at  Rome,  about  A.  v>.  382,  and  his  forsaking  Nitria,  in  A.  D.  38G, 
out  of  dislike  to  them;  though  he  himself  was,  at  this  time,  a  devout  admirer  of 
Origen's  works. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  159 

among  the  churches,  as  well  as  monasteries,  in  various 
parts  of  Egypt. 

There  was  one  celebrated  retreat,  however,  where 
they  particularly  abounded.  About  fifty  miles  south 
of  Alexandria,  beyond  the  lake  Mareotis  and  a  long 
extent  of  burning  sands  succeeded  by  plains  heaped 
with  pebbles,  rose  the  bare  and  sun-burnt  hills  of 
Mtria,  amidst  a  boundless  prospect  of  desolation.^ 
It  was  in  the  borders  of  the  great  Lybian  Desert. 
Around  these  hills  the  monks  had  gathered  into  a  vast 
community,  the  most  famous,  perhaps,  and  with  the 
exception  of  that  at  Oxyrinchus,  the  most  numerous, 
of  all  they  had  yet  formed.  This  was  the  principal 
seat  of  the  Origenists.  They  appear  to  have  consti- 
tuted the  smaller  part  of  five  or  six  thousand  recluses. ^ 
As  strangers  resorted  hither,  even  from  distant  coun- 
tries, in  order  to  acquire  the  monastic  discipline  and 
precepts  in  their  perfection,  many  attached  themselves 
to  the  new  sect;  and,  travelling  afterwards  through 
different  parts  of  Christendom,  they  propagated  their 
vicAvs  and  partialities  wherever  they  went.  At  a  pe- 
riod a  few  years  later,  we  shall  find  some,  though  per- 
haps not  all,  of  them  to  have  been  Universalists. 

The  Origenists,  as  a  party,  were  attacked  by  Epi- 
phanius.  Bishop  of  Salamis  on  the  island  of 

r.  1  T  A.  D.  376. 

Cyprus.     He  was  a  man  of  much  readmg, 
but  very  careless,  inaccurate,  and  notoriously  disposed 
to  adopt  every  slanderous  report  against  those  whom 
he  disliked.     In  a  large  work,  designed  to  confute  all 

1  Sonnini's  Travels  in  Egypt,  chap.  26  and  27.    The  desert  of  Nitria  is  about 
thirty-live  miles  west  of  Terane.  a  village  on  the  Nile. 

2  For  the  number  of  monks  at  Nitria,  see  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xvi.,  chap. 


160  .      THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

the  heresies  that  had  ever  appeared,  he  devotes  one 
of  the  longest  articles,  of  thirty  or  forty  folio  pages, 
to  the  errors  of  Origeii  Adamantius  and  his  party. ^ 
Having  given  an  account  of  his  life,  in  some  points 
false  and  injurious,  he  says,  "As  to  the  heresy  of  Ori- 
gen,  it  was  first  propagated  in  Egypt ;  and  at  this  day 
it  flourishes  chiefly  among  those  who  profess  the  mo- 
nastic life.  It  is  a  pestiferous  heresy,  exceeding  in 
wickedness  all  the  former  ones,  the  errors  of  which  it 
indeed  embraces.  For,  though  it  is  attended  with  no 
appearance  of  vice  among  its  votaries,  it  teaches  the 
most  absurd  notion  concerning  God.  From  this 
fountain  it  was,  that  Arius  and  his  sectaries  derived 
their  errors.  Origen  proceeded  to  such  an  extent 
of  temerity,  as  to  assert  that  the  only  begotten  Son 
cannot  behold  the  Father,  nor  the  Holy  Ghost  see 
the  Son,  nor  angels  the  Holy  Ghost,  nor  man  the 
angels.  This  was  his  first  error :  For  he  held  the 
Son  to  be  of  the  substance  of  the  Father  in  such  a 
way  as  that  he  was  nevertheless  created.  He  held 
still  more  heinous  errors ;  for  he  taught  that  the 
souls  of  men  existed  before  their  bodies,  and  were 
angels  or  superior  powers,  who  have  been  consigned, 
on  account  of  their  sins,  to  these  mortal  frames,  for 
the  purpose  of  punishment.  We  could  mention  ever 
so  many  of  his  notions  :  that,  for  instance,  which  he 
entertained,  that  Adam  lost  the  divine  image  by 
transgression.  Hence  it  is,  says  Origen,  that  the 
Scripture  mentions  the  coats  of  skins  with  which  God 


1  The  Origeniani,  whom  Epiphanius  describes  in  Haeres.  Ixiii.,  are  suspected  to 
have  been  creatures  of  his  imagination.  See  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc.,  chap. 
Koetus,  and  othera  called  Heretics,  etc. 


OF    UNIVEUSALISM.  161 

clothed  our  first  parents  ;  which  coats  he  takes  to  be 
then-  bodies.  There  are,  indeed,  an  infinite  number 
of  dogmas  advanced  by  him,  worthy  of  ridicule  and 
laughter.  He  even  represented  the  resurrection  in  an 
imperfect  and  defective  manner,  partly  asserting  it  in 
appearance,  and  partly  denying  it  in  reality.  In  other 
words,  he  supposed  that  only  a  part  of  man  is  to  be 
raised.  And  finally,  he  turned  whatever  he  could 
into  allegories  ;  such  as  Eden  or  Paradise,  and  its 
waters  ;  and  the  waters  which  are  above  the  firma- 
ment, and  those  which  are  under  the  earth,"  etc.^ 
Epiphanius  then  proceeds  to  treat,  at  considerable 
length,  on  his  views  of  the  Trinity  and  the  resurrec- 
tion, inserting  nearly  all  the  treatise  of  Methodius  on 
the  latter  subject;  after  which,  he  returns  to  inveigh 
once  more  against  his  notions  of  the  coats  of  skins, 
of  pre-existence,  and  of  the  resurrection,  calling  him 
"  an  infidel,  and  worse  than  an  infidel."  It  is  remarka- 
ble that,  like  all  the  former  opposers  of  Origen,  he, 
too,  passes  over  the  doctrine  of  Universalism  in  si- 
lence ;  though  we  discover  that  he  himself,  at  the 
same  time,  believed  that  there  is  no  change  of  condi- 
tion nor  room  for  repentance  after  death.^  This  at- 
tack, though  professedly  against  the  Origenists,  was 
directed  more  particularly  against  their  master  himself. 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  last  he  sufiered  till  the 
famous  contest  that  arose  at  the  end  of  this  century, 


1  Epiplianii  Panarium,  Haeres.  Ixiv.,  §  4.  This  passage,  which  I  have  com- 
pressed a  little,  contains  about  every  point  that  Epiphanius  censures  throughout 
the  whole  article.  This  part  of  his  work  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  in 
A.  D.  376.    See  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc.,  chap.  Epiphanius. 

2  Ditto,  Haeres.  lix. 


162  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

in  which  Epiphaiiius  will  again  appear  as  a  principal 
actor. 

We  have  already  advanced  into  a  period  that  forms 
a  distinsfuished  era  in  our  history.     Uni- 

A.  D.  370  to  383.  ,.   '^  ^        -  ,  /» 

vcrsalism  appears  to  nave  been,  lor  a 
while,  the  sentiment  of  a  majority  of  the  most  emi- 
nent orthodox  fathers  in  the  East.  Gregory  Nyssen, 
Didymus,  Jerome,  and  Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  were  its 
advocates  ;  and  the  celebrated  Gregory  Nazianzen,  who 
was  elevated  at  length  to  the  bishopric  of  Constantino- 
ple, hesitated  between  this  doctrine  and  that  of  endless 
misery.  His  readiness  in  expounding  the  Nicene 
faith  acquired  for  him  the  appellation  of  The  Theolo- 
gian; and  of  all  the  fathers,  except  Chrysostom,  he  is 
the  most  renowned  for  a  brilliant  and  glowing  elo- 
quence. His  works  are,  of  course,  declamatory  and 
exhortative,  rather  than  doctrinal ;  but  he  has  still  left 
sufficient  proofs  of  the  unsettled  state  of  his  opinion. 
Sometimes  he  represented  future  misery  as  a  dispen- 
sation of  mere  torment,  opposed  to  all  corrective  suf- 
fering ;  and  asserted  that  in  hell,  or  the  place  of  the 
dead,  there  can  be  no  confession  nor  reformation.^ 
But  at  other  times  he  thought  it  probable  that  those 
torments  would  be  directed  to  the  salvation  of  the 
sufferers.  "I  have  mentioned,"  says  he,  "the  purify- 
ing fire  which  Christ  came  to  kindle  upon  earth ;  who 
is  himself  figuratively  called  fire.  It  is  the  nature  of 
this  fire  to  consume  the  grosser  matter,  or  vicious 
character,  of  the  mind.  But  there  is  also  another 
soi-t  of  fire,  not  of  purgation,  but  intended  for  a 
vi  idictive  punishment  of  wickedness  :   whether  it  be 

*  Grcgorii  Nazianzeni  Oratio  Decimaquiiita,  p.  229,  torn,  i.,  edit.  Paris,  1630. 


OF   UXIVEKSALISM.  163 

that  of  Sodom,  which,  mixed  with  sulphur  and  storm, 
God  pours  upon  all  sinners  ;  or  that  which  is  pre- 
pared for  the  devil  and  his  angels  ;  or  even  that  which 
proceeds  before  the  face  of  the  Lord ;  or  lastly,  that 
more  formidable  than  all,  which  is  connected  Avith  the 
unsleeping  worm,  and  is  never  extinguished,  but  is 
continual  and  everlasting,  for  the  punishment  of 
wicked  men.  It  is  the  nature  of  all  these  to  ruin, 
to  destroy ;  unless,  however,  one  may  suppose 
that  the  fire,  in  this  case  also,  is  to  be  understood 
more  moderately,  and  as  is  worthy,  indeed,  of  the  God 
who  punishes."  ^  In  another  passage,  speaking  of  the 
Novatians,  an  heretical  sect,  he  says,  "Perhaps  they 
will  be  baptized,  in  the  next  world,  with  fire,  which 
is  the  last  baptism,  and  is  not  only  keen,  but  of  great 
duration,  and  which  shall  feed  on  the  dull  matter,  as 
on  hay,  till  it  shall  have  consumed  all  their  sins."  ^ 
Such  is  the  indecision  of  Gregory  upon  this  subject, 
that  it  is  of  little  consequence  to  mention  his  re- 
peated application  of  the  word  everlasting  to  future 
punishment. 

It  has  been  said,  by  one  of  the  best  critics  ^  on 
ecclesiastical  history,  that  of  all  the  fathers  of  the 
fourth  century,  there  was  not  a  more  moderate  nor 
worthier  man  than  Gregory  Nazianzen.  Uniting  a 
quick  and  deep  sensibility  with  a  lofty  imagination,  he 
was  too  contemplative,  too  fond  of  retirement,  to 
engage  willingly  in  the  perpetual  contentions  of  his 
age,  or  even  to  relish  the  tumults  of  a  public  life.    He 


1  Oreg.  Nazianz.,  Oratio  xl.,  pp.  684,  665,  torn.  1. 

2  Ditto,  Oratio  xxxix.,  p.  636,  torn.  i. 

3  Le  Clerc.    See  Jortin's  Remarks  on  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  95,  London,  1773. 


104  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

condemned  the  captiousness  of  the  zealous  bigots 
upon  doctrinal  points ;  though  one  would  suppose 
that  he  himself  was,  in  this  respect,  fastidious  enough. 
The  clergy  of  that  day,  he  boldly,  and  it  appears 
justly,  represented  as  a  body  of  men  avaricious,  quar- 
relsome, licentious,  and,  in  one  word,  unprincipled ; 
and  of  the  frequent  councils,  which  then  disturbed 
the  peace  of  the  church,  he  declared  that  he  was  afraid 
of  them,  because  he  had  never  seen  the  end  of  one 
that  was  happy  and  pleasant,  or  that  did  not  rather 
increase  than  diminish  the  evil.^  Nothing  can  more 
strikingly  evince  the  universal  intolerance  of  the  age, 
than  that  one  of  its  most  pacific  men  approved,  and 
sometimes  urged,  the  persecution  of  heretics,  and 
openly  lamented  that  the  apostate  Emperor  Julian  had 
not  been  put  to  death  by  his  predecessor. 

His  intimacy  with  Basil  the  Great  began  in  early 
life,  amidst  the  schools  of  Athens.  Having  already 
studied  both  in  Palestine  and  at  Alexandria,  Gregory 
repaired  to  this  seat  of  Grecian  literature  about  the 
year  244,  and  was,  not  long  afterwards,  joined  by 
his  young  companion.  Here  they  became  acquainted 
with  Julian,  the  future  emperor,  then  a  youth  like 
themselves.  Gregory  at  length  returned  home  to 
Nazianzum,  a  small  city  in  the  south-western  part  of 
Cappadocia,  of  which  his  father  was  bishop.  But 
when  Basil,  on  his  return  from  the  monasteries  of 
Egypt,  retired  to  a  solitude  in  Pontus,  he  followed 
him  to  that  retreat,  assisted  him  in  establishing  the 
monastic  institutions  there,  and,  as  it  seems,  remained 
awhile  after  his  friend  had  engaged  in  a  more  public 

1  Greg.  Nazianz.,  Epist.  Iv. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  165 

and  distinguished    sphere.     The  latter  was  ordained 
Bishop  of  Cappadocia,  in  a.  d.   270 ;  and  wishing  to 
preoccupy,  against  the  attempts  of  a  rival,  the  small 
and  obscure  village  of  Sasima,  on  the  confines  of  his 
jurisdiction,  he  recalled  Gregory  from  his  retirement, 
and   appointed   him    bishop    of  the  contested   place. 
Gregory  resented  this  heartless  conduct  in  his  friend  ; 
and,   refusing  to  accept  the   unwortliy  appointment, 
took  up  his  residence  again  at  Nazianzum,  assisting 
his  aged  father  in  the  care  of  the  church.     After  the 
death  of  his  venerable   parent,  he  went  to   Selucia, 
and  thence,  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  bishops,  to 
Constantinople,  where    he  arrived   about  a.  d.    378. 
He  found  the  city  full   of  Arians,  who  occupied  all 
the    churches;    the    orthodox    few,    dispirited,    and 
destitute  of  a  place  for  public  worship.     After  preach- 
ing awhile  in  private  houses,  his  eloquence  and  austere 
life  drew  into  his  flock  a  number  sufliciently  large  to 
erect  a  spacious  church,  which  they  called  The  Anas- 
tasia,  or  Resurrection,  to  intimate  the  revival  of  the 
Consubstantial   faith.     The    attention   of    the    whole 
city  was  roused ;  the  triumphant  orthodox,  the  here- 
tics of  all  kinds,  and  even  the  heathens,  crowded  in 
a  mingled   mass   to   the   Anastasia,    to  feast   on   his 
doctrine,    or    to    admire    the    enchantment    of    his 
eloquence ;  and  such  was  the  pressure  of  the  throno-, 
as  sometimes  to  crush  down  the  railing  which  enclosed 
the  pulpit. 

In  the  midst  of  his  success,  however,  he  was  deeply 
wounded  by  the  ingratitude  of  an  unprincipled  but 
sanctimonious  wretch,  whom  he  had  cherished.  This 
impostor,  named  Maximus,  formed  a  faction  among 


166  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  orthodox  themselves,  at  Alexandria  and  other 
places,  to  usurp  the  bishopric  of  Constantinople ; 
came  with  his  partisans,  and  forcibly  entered  Greg- 
ory's own  church ;  and,  when  di'iven  out  by  the 
alarmed  multitude,  appealed,  though  in  vain,  to  the 
Emperor  Theodosius.  He  finally  succeeded,  however, 
in  prevailing  on  the  Italian  bishops  to  countenance 
his  project ;  and  he  found  too  many  among  the 
eastern  clerg}^  who,  out  of  envy,  favored  his  cause. 
Few  men,  perhaps,  were  less  fitted  than  Gregory, 
to,  act  amidst  such  circumstances.  Though  bold, 
vehement,  and  resolute  when  surrounded  by  avowed 
enemies  to  his  faith,  opposition  from  his  own  party 
withered  his  heai-t,  and  sickened  him  of  life.  He 
sought  to  retire  from  Constantinople  to  solitude. 
But  the  anxious  entreaties  of  his  people  so  for  pre- 
vailed that  he  deferred  his  resolution ;  and  the  new 
Emperor  Theodosius,  making  his  first  entry  into  Con- 
stantinople towards  the  end  of  the  year  380,  drove 
the  Arians  from  all  the  churches  in  the  city,  banished 
their  bishop,  and  introduced ,  Gregory  to  the  posses- 
sion, and  to  the  revenues,  of  their  great  or  cathedral 
church.^  This  new  state  of  things  seemed  to  aiford 
him  a  space  of  quiet ;  and  in  the  General  Council 
which  assembled  the  next  year,  at  Constantinople,  he 
was  confirmed  in  his  bishopric.  Before  the  close  of 
the  session,  however,  or  perhaps  in  another  session 
held  at  the  same  place  in  a.  d.  382,  new  difficulties 
broke  out :  Gregory's  stern  integi'ity  gave  ofience  to 
some,  as  it  thwarted  their  intrigues ;  and  his  popu- 
larity aroused  the  jealousy  of  others.     Sinking  under 

1  It  stood  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  167 

premature  old  age,  wearied  with  contention,  and  dis- 
gusted with  the  vices  of  tlie  bishops,  he  resolved, 
notwithstanding  the  bitter  lamentations  of  his  friends, 
to  resign  a  post  that  continually  exposed  him  to  the 
abuse  of  clerical  envy  and  ambition.  In  the  great 
church  of  Constantinople,  so  lately  wrested  from  the 
Ai'ians,  he  ascended  the  pulpit  for  the  last  time,  sur- 
rounded by  the  members  of  the  General  Council,  by 
his  own  beloved  people,  and  by  the  wonted  crowd. 
He  repeated  the  history  of  his  success  in  that  city, 
described  the  doctrine  he  had  preached,  besought  the 
bishops,  by  forsaking  their  contentious  practices,  to 
heal  the  divisions  of  the  church,  and  concluded  by 
taking  leave  of  public  life  and  of  the  scenes  of  his 
labors.^      He     retired    immediately    to    Nazianzum, 

1 '" Farewell,  Anastasia ! "  said  he;  "thou  that  sawest  our  doctrine  raised  up 
from  its  low,  despised  estate;  dear  seats  of  our  common  victory,  our  new  Siloam, 
where  first  the  ark  of  our  God  rested,  after  its  hopeless  wanderings  in  the  desert. 
Farewell,  too,  this  great  and  august  temple,  where  we  meet  I  our  new  heritage ; 
thou  that  wast  a  Jebus  before,  now  converted  to  a  Jerusalem.  And  ye  other  sa- 
cred edifices,  also  scattered  over  the  whole  city  and  its  suburbs,  farewell !  the 
grace  of  Grod,  and  not  our  feeble  exertions,  hath  now  filled  you  with  the  faithful. 
Thou  envied  and  dangerous  pre-eminence,  episcopal  throne,  farewell  1  Farewell, 
pontifical  palace,  venerable  for  thine  age  and  the  majesty  of  the  priesthood! 
Farewell,  ye  choirs  of  Nazareans  I  whose  strains  of  psalmody  I  shall  no  more 
hear,  whose  nocturnal  celebrations  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  I  shall  no  more  at- 
tend. Te  holy  virgins,  ye  widows  and  orphans,  ye  eyes  of  the  poor,  turned 
alternately  to  heaven  and  towards  the  preacher,  farewell  I  Farewell,  ye  hospita- 
ble domes,  devoted  to  Christ,  which  have  so  often  assisted  my  infirmity !  Ye 
mingling  throngs  that  crowded  to  my  sermons,  ye  swift-handed  notaries,  ye  rails, 
pressed  by  my  greedy  auditors,  farewell !  Farewell,  emperors  and  courts  !  Fare- 
well, thou  imperial  city,  whose  zeal,  though  not,  perhaps,  according  to  knowledge, 
I  yet  will  frankly  testify  !  May  thy  service  of  God  be  more  sincere,  and  thy  fruits 
of  righteousness  more  abundant.  Ye  bishops  of  the  East  and  West,  farewell ! 
why  will  not  some  of  you  imitate  this  my  resignation,  and  restore  peace  to  the 
divided  and  contentious  church  ?  I  call  you  but  to  relinquish  dignities  upon  earth, 
for  heavenly  thrones,  far  safer,  and  more  exalted.  Ye  angels,  the  guardians  of 
this  church,  and  of  my  presence  and  wanderings,  farewell  I  Thou  sacred  Trinity  I 
my  meditation  and  my  glory,  oh,  may  1  hear  of  the  daily  increase  of  this  my  peo- 
ple, their  growth  in  knowledge  and  grace.  And  ye,  my  people,  for  mine  ye  are, 
though  another  shall  govern  you,  —  my  little  children,  keep  the  faith  I  have  deliv- 
ered you,  remembering  my  labors  and  my  sufferings."  Greg.  Nazianz.,  Oratio 
xxxii.  fin.,  tom.  i.,  pp.  527,  628. 


168  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

where  he  lived  m  obscurity  and  quiet,  employing 
himself  in  devout  exercises,  and  in  poetic  composition. 
He  died  about  a.  d.  389,  aged  not  far  from  seventy 
years.  His  plain,  determined  integrity  is  worthy  of 
all  praise  ;  and  the  unblemished  purity  of  his  life  and 
manners,  though  veiled  under  the  shade  of  monastic 
gloom,  commands  our  highest  respect.  His  eloquence, 
which  has  been  absurdly  compared  to  that  of  Demos- 
thenes, was  formed  on  the  tiu-gid  style  of  the  Asiatics, 
rather  than  on  the  severe  simplicity  of  the  Grecian ; 
and  it  was  therefore  the  better  adapted  to  discourse 
on  mysteries,  and  to  excite  the  wonder  of  an  ignorant 
populace. 

The  feebleness  of  a  body,  subdued  by  rigorous 
austerities,  must  have  increased  the  sensibility  of  his 
temperament ;  and  this,  united  with  the  generous  and 
confiding  character  of  his  affections,  exposed  him  to 
perpetual  afilictions  from  the  baseness  and  ingratitude 
of  manldnd.  It  is  no  wonder  that  to  such  a  man,  the 
diflScult  station,  which  he  prudently  resigned,  was 
attended  with  a  weight  of  cares  insupportable.  The 
church,  however,  has  always  held  his  memory  dear ; 
and  his  name  still  occupies  a  respectable  place  on  the 
pages  of  ecclesiastical  history. 

Like  Basil,  he  was  moderately  given  to  the  alle- 
gorical method  of  exposition.  We  have  already  men- 
vAoned  their  mutual  admiration  of  Origen's  writings. 

But  in  this  he  was  perhaps  surpassed  by  his  friend, 
vjregory  Nyssen,  the  brother  of  Basil  the  Great. 
This  eminent  father  and  bishop  followed  Origen's 
system  in  allegorizing  the  Scriptures,  farther  than  most 
of  his  cotemporaries .   though  he  still  avoided  many 


OF   IJNIVEESALISM.  169 

of  his  extravagances,  and  rejected  some  of  his 
notions.^  The  doctrine  of  Universal  Salvation,  how- 
ever, he  adopted  and  taught  more  frequently  ^  than, 
perhaps,  any  other  early  writer  whose  works  are 
extant. 

Endeavoring  to  wi*est  from  the  Arians  that  expres- 
sion of  St.  Paul,  Then  sliall  the  Son  also  be  subject 
unto  him  who  put  all  things  under  him  (1  Cor.  xv. 
28),  and  to  make  it  appear  consistent  with  Trinitari- 
anism,  he  takes  occasion  to  exiDlain  the  connection  at 
large,  in  order  to  point  out  what  he  supposes  to  be 
the  apostle's  argument:  "What,  therefore,"  says  he, 
"is  the  scope  of  St.  Paul's  argument  in  this  place? 


1  See  Crregorii  Xysseni.  Disputat.  de  Anima  et  Resurrect.,  pp.  264,  265, 269.  Lib. 
de  Creatione  Hominis,  cap.  29.  p.  459,  and  cap.  30,  p.  462.  De  Hist.  Sex  Dierum, 
pp.  293,  294,  edit.  Basil,  1562. 

2  A  plea  first  advanced  more  than  three  hundred  years  after  Gregory  Xyssen's 
death,  to  defend  him  from  the  imputation  of  UniversaUsm,  is  sometimes  repeated, 
though  in  a  faltering  manner,  by  modern  critics.  Germanus.  Bishop  of  Constanti- 
nople, who  flourished  about  A.  D.  730,  contended,  that  in  Gregory  Xyssen's  IHa- 
logue  on  the  Soul,  in  his  great  Catechetical  Oration,  and  in  his  Tract  on  the  Perfect 
Life  of  a  Chnstian,  all  such  passages  as  taught  the  restoration  of  the  devils  and 
of  the  damned  had  either  been  corrupted  or  added  by  the  Origenists;  and  for 
proof  he  referred  to  the  connections  of  the  passages  in  question,  and  to  the  al- 
leged fact  that  in  other  places  Gregory  had  contradicted  that  sentiment.  (See 
Photii  Biblioth.,  Cod.  233.)  Du  Rn,  who,  by  the  way,  misrepresents  Germanus, 
manifestly  desires  to  avail  himself  of  this  plea ;  but  at  the  same  time  betrays  his 
want  of  confidence  in  it.  (Bibhotheca  Patrum,  art.  Gregory  Xyssen.)  The  truth 
is,  it  would  be  impossible  to  take  Universalism  out  of  Gregory  Xyssen's  works 
without  destroying  some  of  his  pieces,  and  rendering  others  unintelligible ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  suspect  that  it  was  wrongfully  inserted  in  the  three  books 
which  Germanus  names.  That  Gregory  ever  denies  the  doctrine  in  question,  I 
have  not  discovered.  The  independent  Daille  (De  Usu  Patrmn,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4, 
Latin  edition,  for  the  EngUsh,  and  probably  the  French  are  incomjjlete)  treats 
Germanus's  supposition  with  merited  contempt.  "•  It  is  the  last  resort,"  says  he, 
''  of  those  who  with  a  stupid  and  absurd  pertinacity  will  have  it  that  the  ancients 
wrote  nothing  different  from  the  faith  at  present  received;  for  the  whole  of 
Gregory  Xyssen's  Orations  are  so  deeply  imbued  with  the  pestiferous  doctrine  in 
question,  that  it  can  have  been  inserted  by  none  other  than  the  author  himself." 
Dr.  T.  Burnet  also  (De  Statu  Mort.  et  Resurg.,  p.  138,  London,  1733)  pronounces 
the  plea  of  Germanus  vain.     See  note  2,  on  p.  112,  following. 


170  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

That  the  nature  of  evil  shall,  at  length,  be  wholly 
exterminated,  and  divine,  immortal  goodness  embrace 
within  itself  every  rational  creature ;  so  that  of 
all  who  were  made  by  God,  not  one  shall  be  excluded 
from  his  kingdom.  All  the  vicionsness,  that  like  a 
corrupt  matter  is  mingled  in  things,  shall  be  dis- 
solved and  consumed  in  the  furnace  of  purgatorial 
fire ;  and  everything  that  had  its  origin  from  God 
shall  be  restored  to  its  pristine  state  of  purity." 
The  author  proceeds  to  contend,  in  his  abstruse  and 
mystical  way,  that  the  human  nature  which  Christ 
assumed,  being  so  intimately  connected  with  the  com- 
mon nature  of  man,  that  the  apostle  here  calls  it  "the 
fii'st  fruits"  of  the  human  race,  the  subjection  of  all 
mankind  to  God  may,  by  a  figure,  be  called  the  sub- 
jection of  Christ  himself,  the  first  fruits.  "When 
therefore  the  dominion  of  sin  within  us  shall  be 
entirely  overthrown,  everything  must,  of  course,  be 
subject  to  him  who  rules  over  all ;  because  there  .can 
be  no  opposing  inclination  in  the  universe.  Now, 
subjection  to  God  is  perfect  and  absolute  aliena- 
tion from  evil.  Wherefore,  Avhen  we  all  shall  be 
freed  from  sin,  and  perfectly  assimilated  to  Christ, 
our  first  fruits,  and  made  one  uniform  body  with  him, 
then  what  is  called  the  subjection  of  Christ  is,  in 
reality,  accomplished  in  us ;  and  because  we  are  his 
body,  our  subjection  is  attributed  to  him  who  efiected 
it  in  ourselves.  Such,  we  think,  is  the  meaning  of 
St.  Paul  in  this  passage  :  For  as  in  Adam  all  die^ 
so  also  through  Christ  shall  all  he  made  alive;  hut 
every  one  in  his  oivn  order:  Christy  the  first  fruits; 
then    they   who    are    Christ's    at   his    coining;    then 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  171 

Cometh  the  end,  icLen  he  shall  have  deliverea  iij)  the 
kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father,  when  he  shall 
have  abolished  all  dominion,  and  aiitJiority,  and 
power.  For  he  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy,  death,  shall 
he  destroyed.  For  he  hath  put  all  things  under  his 
feet.  But  tohen  he  saith.  All  things  are  put  under 
him,  it  is  manifest  that  he  is  excepted  ivho  did  put 
all  things  under  him.  And  ivJien  all  things  shall 
be  sidjjected  to  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  hi^nself 
be  subjected  to  him  who  put  all  things  under  him; 
that  God  maybe  all  in  all.  (1  Cor.  xv.  22 — 28.) 
It  is  manifest  that  here  the  apostle  declares  the  ex- 
tinction of  all  sin,  saying,  that  God  will  be  all  in  all. 
For  God  will  be  truly  all  in  all  only  when  no  evil 
shall  remain  in  the  nature  of  things,  as  he  is  never 
engaged  in  evil,"  etc.^ 

Gregory  held  different  degrees  of  happiness  in 
heaven,  apportioned  to  the  different  merits  which  the 
blessed  had  acquired  upon  earth ;  ^  and  different  de- 
grees of  future  punishment,  according  to  the  various 
characters  of  the  sufferers.  "  I  believe,"  said  he,  "that 
punishment  will  be  administered  in  proportion  to  each 
one's  corruptness.  For  it  would  be  unequal  to  tor- 
ment with  the  same  purgatorial  pains  him  who  has 
long  indulged  in  transgression,  and  him  who  has  only 
fallen  into  a  few  common  sins.  But  that  grievous 
flame  shall  burn  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  ac- 
cording in  the  kind  and  quantity  of  the  matter  that 


1  Tract  in  Dictum  Apostoli,  Tunc  etiam  ipse  Filius  subjiciefur,  etc.,  p.  137,  and 
seq. 
-  Lib.  De  Infautibu.*  quae  praemature  abripiuntur. 


172  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

supports  it.  Therefore,  to  whom  there  is  much  cor- 
ruption attached,  with  him  it  is  necessary  that  the 
flame  wliich  is  to  consume  it  should  be  great,  and  of 
long  duration ;  but  to  him  in  whom  the  wicked  dispo- 
sition has  been  already  in  part  subjected,  a  propor- 
tional degree  of  that  shaiper  and  more  vehement 
punishment  shall  be  remitted.  All  evil,  however, 
must,  at  length,  be  entirely  removed  from  everything, 
so  that  it  shall  no  more  exist.  For  such  being  the 
nature  of  sin,  that  it  cannot  exist  without  a  corrupt 
motive,  it  must,  of  course,  be  perfectly  dissolved 
and  wholly  destroyed,  so  that  nothing  can  remain 
a  receptacle  of  it,  when  all  motive  and  influence  shall 
spring  from  God  alone,"  etc.^ 

In  another  place  he  asserts  that  as  the  devil  "  as- 
sumed a  fleshly  shape  in  order  to  ruin  human  nature, 
so  the  Lord  took  flesh  for  the  salvation  of  man  ;  and 
thus  he  blesses  not  only  him  who  was  ruined,  but  him 
also  who  led  him  into  perdition ;  so  that  he  both  de- 
livers man  from  sin,  and  heals  the  author  of  sin  him- 
self." ^ 

Like  the  earlier  Universalists,  Gregory  freely  applied 
the  word  everlasting  to  future  punishment,  —  a  circum- 
stance which,  probably,  has  betrayed  some  critics  into 
the  hasty  conclusion  that  he  sometimes  denied  the 
doctrine  of  universal  restoration,  and  asserted  that 
of  endless  misery.  A  remarkable  use  of  that  phrase 
occurs  in  a  passage  where  he  alludes  to  the  ultimate 

1  Dieputatio  de  Anima  et  Resurrectione,  p.  260. 

2  Oratio  Catechetica.  cap.  26.  I  here  subjoin  the  titles  of  those  works  in  which 
Gregory  Nyssen  teaches  Universalism :  De  Anima  et  Resurrectione;  Oratio 
Catechetica;  JJe  Infantjbus  qui  pra?mature  abripiuntur;  Oratio  de  Mortuis;  In 
Dictum  Apostoli,  Tvncijjse  flliun  subjicietur  Patri ;  De  Perfectione  Christiani. 


OF   UNIVERSALIS^.  173 

fate  of  such  as  have  become  confirmed  m  debauchery. 
"Whoever,"  says  he,  " considers  the  divme  power 
will  plainly  perceive  that  it  is  able,  at  length,  to  re- 
store, by  means  of  the  everlasting  purgation  and  ex- 
piatory sufierings,  those  who  have  gone  even  to  this 
extremity  of  wickedness."^ 

His  general  system  of  doctrine  it  is  unnecessary  to 
state  at  large,  since  it  was  the  same  that  distinguished 
the  orthodox  of  his  age.  A  few  particulars,  how- 
ever, may  be  specified  :  The  opinion,  universally  re- 
ceived by  the  Christians  of  this  century,  that  regen- 
eration was  experienced  only  in  the  rite  of  water 
baptism;  was,  of  course,  entertained  by  Gregory; 
and  with  them  he  agreed  that  it  was  efiected  by  the 
exertions  of  the  human  will,  aided  by  the  profiered 
assistance  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Predestination  and 
irresistible  grace,  in  their  modern  sense,  were  as  yet 
unknown  in  the  church.  In  one  or  two  respects  our 
author  was  an  honorable  exception  to  the  prevalent 
superstition  of  his  cotemporaries  ;  he  dissuaded  from 
the  growing  practice  of  pilgrimages  to  shrines  and 
holy  places ;  and,  though  a  patron  of  the  monastic 
life,  he  defended  the  excellence  of  matrimony  both 
by  precept  and  example ;  being  himself  one  of  the 
few  married  bishops  of  that  age. 

He  has  left  one  production,  his  Life  of  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus,  which  involves  him,  as  an  author,  in 
the  charge  either  of  unbounded  credulity,  or  of  total 
disregard  of  historical  truth.  It  is  a  worthless  legend, 
enlivened  only  with  fictitious  miracles  the  most  foolish, 
and  with  disgusting  tales  the  most  incredible.     That 

I  De  Infantibus  qui  prafimature  abripiuntur,  p.  178. 


174  THE    ANCIENT    IlISTOEY 

he  even  presumed  to  lay  it  l:)efore  the  world  is  a  suf- 
ficient indication  of  the  universal  stupidity,  and  of  the 
thorough  corruption  of  the  public  taste.  Could  illus- 
trious precedent,  however,  exonerate  from  the  crimi- 
nality of  falsehood  or  disingenuous  fiction,  he  might 
justly  plead  that  of  the  great  Athanasius,  who  appears 
to  have  set  the  first  example  of  these  monkish  ro- 
mances, by  his  Life  of  Anthomj ;  and  three  or  four 
productions,  of  the  same  character,  which  soon  after- 
wards appeared  under  the  honored  names  of  Jerome 
and  Sulpitius  Severus,  have  contributed  much  to  re- 
lieve Gregory  from  the  disgrace  of  solitary  folly. 
The  rest  of  our  author's  works  are  composed  in  a  style 
dry,  involved,  and  obscure ;  and  they  abound  in  ab- 
surd allegories  and  abstruse  mysticism.  In  learning, 
he  was  second  to  few  of  his  day  ;  in  influence,  he  stood 
among  the  first  in  the  orthodox  party.  It  is  remarka- 
ble that  he  has  never  been  condemned  for  his  Univer- 
salism ;  and  that  he  was  never  even  censured  for  it 
till  two  or  three  centuries  after  his  death. 

In  his  youth  he  was  so  strongly  inclined  to  a  lit- 
erary life,  that  it  was  with  much  difficulty  he  was  per- 
suaded to  abandon  his  favorite  study  of  rhetoric,  in 
order  to  take  upon  himself  the  duties  of  the  ministry. 
About  A.  D.  371,  when  not  far  from  thirty-two  years 
old,  he  was  ordained  Bishop  of  Nyssa,  a  small  city  in 
the  western  part  of  Cappadocia.  Valens,  the  Arian 
emperor,  being  then  on  the  throne  of  Constantinople, 
drove  several  orthodox  bishops  into  exile  ;  and  in  the 
year  374  procured,  by  the  means  of  his  lieutenant 
Demosthenes,  the  expulsion  of  Gregory  from  his 
church.     But,  after  four   years    of  absence,   he  was 


OF   UNIVERSAL! SM.  175 

recalled,  with  the  rest  of  the  bauished  bishops,  on  the 
accession  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  and  permanently 
established  in  his  office.  Soon  afterguards,  either  the 
council  of  Antioch,  or  that  of  Constantinople,  appointed 
him  to  visit,  with  other  delegates,  the  churches  of 
Pontus  and  those  of  Arabia,  in  order  to  revive  among 
them  the  orthodox  faith  and  discipline  ;  and  the  new 
emperor  honored  him,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  duty, 
with  a  public  conveyance.  It  appears  that  some  time 
after  his  return  he  was  called  to  Constantinople  on 
the  death  of  the  Empress  Placilla,  in  a.  d.  385,  to 
pronounce  her  funeral  oration.  He  died  at  Nyssa, 
about  the  year  394,  aged  nearly  sixty. 

We  have  somewhat  delayed  the  introduction  of  an 
eminent  Universalist  who  flourished  at  this  period 
among  the  orthodox  in  Egypt,  and  whose  renown  for 
profane  and  sacred  learning  filled  all  the  East.  Didy- 
mus  the  Blind,  of  Alexandria,  though  much  older  than 
Basil  or  either  of  the  Gregories,  seems  not  to  have 
acquired  his  extensive  reputation  till  their  fame,  also, 
had  spread  through  the  church.  Deprived  forever 
of  his  eyesight  when  only  five  years  old,  he  neverthe- 
less succeeded  in  making  himself  master  of  grammar, 
rhetoric,  logic,  music,  arithmetic,  and  even  the  most 
difficult  parts  of  the  mathematics  ;  and  his  knowledge 
of  divinity  was  so  highly  esteemed,  that  he  was  elected 
President  of  the  great  Catechetical  School  in  his  na- 
tive city.  He  was  a  professed  admirer  of  Origen, 
whom  he  considered  as  his  master,  and  whose  books 
Of  Principles  he  illustrated  with  brief  Gommentanes, 
defending  them  against  the  misconstructions  of  the 
Arians. 


176  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

That  he  was  a  Universalist,  the  uncontradicted  tes- 
timony of  cotemporaiy  and  succeeding  writers  ^  is, 
perhaps,  sufficient  evidence  ;  but  his  condemnation,  as 
such,  by  the  General  Council  of  Constantinople,  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  after  his  death,  confirms  the 
foct,  and  at  the  same  time  proves  that,  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Eestoration,  he  also  held  that  of  the  Pre- 
existence  of  souls. ^  That  posthumous  sentence  of 
excommunication,  however,  by  consigning  his  hereti- 
cal works  to  destruction,  has  denied  us  the  satisfaction 
of  adducing  his  own  language ;  but  even  in  the  few 
of  his  writings  that  still  remain  we  find  some  traces  of 
the  obxoxious  doctrine,  which  were  probably  over- 
looked by  the  ancient  censors.  He  says  that  "  as  man- 
kind, by  being  reclaimed  from  their  sins,  are  to  be 
subjected  to  Christ  in  the  fulness  of  the  dispensation 
instituted  for  the  salvation  of  all,  so  the  superior 
rational  intelligences,  the  angels,  will  be  reduced  to 
obedience  by  the  correction '  of  their  vices."  ^  It  is 
said  that  he  also  disapproves  of  all  servile  fear."* 

Though  not  reckoned  among  the  Origenists  of  his 
time,  Didymus  was  undoubtedly  regarded  by  them, 
and  justly,  too,  as  their  chief  patron.  We  can  hardly 
suppose  that  their  own  character  was  so  perverse  as  it 
was  afterwards  represented,  when  we  .  consider  the 
favor  manifestly  shown  them  by  a  Christian  scholar  of 

1  Jerome  and  Rufinus  allude  to  it  as  a  well-known  fact.  Cyi-illus  Scythopolita- 
nus  (Vitae  8.  P.  Sabas,  cap.  90.  inter  Cotelerii  Mon.  Eccl.  Graecae,  torn,  iii.),  a  writer 
of  the  6-ixth  century,  is  the  next  whom  I  recollect. 

2  Cyrill.  Scythopolit.  Vit.  S.  P.  Sabse,  cap.  90. 

3  Didymi  Comment,  in  1  Pet.  iii.  I  have  not  access  to  this  work,  which  is  to  be 
found  only  in  the  great  Bibliotheca  Patrum ;  and  I  therefore  quote  from  Huetii 
Origenian,  lib.  ii..  cap.  2,  qusest.  iii.,  §  26. 

*  Du  Pin's  Bibliotb.  Pat.,  art.  Didymus.    He  refers  to  the  above-named  work. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  177 

his  appareut  good  sense,  and,  Avliat  was  yet  more  rare, 
invariable  candor.  He  was  a  voluminous  writer  ;  but 
only  two  or  three  of  his  works,  his  treatise  On  the 
Holy  Ghost,  his  Cominentaries  on  the  Canonical 
Epistles,  and  a  fragment  of  his  book  Against  tJie 
Manicheans,^  have  survived  the  waste  of  time,  and 
the  exterminating  decrees  of  later  ages.  During  his 
life,  however,  he  was  accounted  a  distinguished  cham- 
pion of  the  orthodoxy  of  that  period ;  and  he  died 
peacefully  in  the  general  communion,  honored  and 
esteemed  by  the  church.  Like  most  of  his  cotempo- 
raries,  he  engaged  heartily  in  support  of  the  monastic 
institution  ;  and  his  renown,  and  his  influential  station 
as  president  of  the  first  school  in  Christendom,  enabled 
him  to  exert  his  zeal  with  much  efiect.  In  the  list  of 
scholars,  who,  at  various  times,  studied  under  him, 
appear  the  names  of  Jerome,  Rufinus,  Palladius,  and 
Isidorus.  He  died  probably  in  the  year  394,  aged 
about  ninety.^ 

Could  learning,  talents,  and  immortal  renown, 
when  dissociated  from  sound  integrity 
and  the  mild  spirit  of  the  gospel,  confer 
honor  on  any  doctrine,  Universalism  might  exult  in 
pronouncing  the  fomous  Jerome  one  of  her  advocates. 
About  the  middle  of  this  century,^  he  was  sent,  while 
yet   a   boy,    from   his   native    Pannonia   beyond   the 

1  There  are  some  fragments  of  Commentaries  on  the  Psalms,  bearing  his  name, 
in  the  "  Aurea  Catena,  interprete  Daniele  Barbaro."  Venetiis,  1569.  But  I 
suppose  that  we  have  no  good  authority  for  attributing  these  to  DidjTuus. 

2  Haeronymi  Catalog.,  art.  Didymus  Alexandrinus,  tom.  iv.  Du  Pin  mistakes 
his  age.  if  indeed  the  figures  in  his  account  be  not  an  error  of  the  press. 

3  The  year  of  Jerome's  birth  is  uncertain.  Du  Pin,  whom  I  follow,  has  at- 
tempted a  chronology  of  the  principal  events  of  his  life,  according  to  which  he 
must  have  been  born  about  A.  D.  340,  or  342.    Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  Jerome,  note 


178  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Adriatic,  to  pursue  his  studies  at  Rome.  Having 
at  length  completed  his  education  there,  and  received 
baptism,  he  travelled,  with  an  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge,  fii'st  into  the  West,  and  visited  the  learned 
men  in  Gaul ;  whence  he  returned,  and,  after  a  short 
stay  in  Italy,  continued  his  journey,  around  the  head 
of  the  Adriatic,  into  the  East.  Here  he  spent  many 
years  in  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Egypt,  studying  with 
the  eminent  fathers  and  doctors,  attending  the 
councils,  and  practising  the  monastic  discipline  in  all 
its  rigors.  In  the  course  of  these  various  pursuits, 
he  studied  awhile  (about  a.  d.  380)  under  Gregory 
Nazianzen  at  Constantinople ;  and  after  making  a 
visit,  of  some  length,  at  Rome,  he  sailed  to  Egypt, 
and  entered  the  monasteries  of  Nitria,  in  the  year  386. 
He  soon  came -down  to  Alexandria,  however,  and 
there  spent  about  a  month  under  the  instructions  of 
Didymus.  But  disliking  the  Origeuists,  though  him- 
self a  professed  admirer  of  their  master,  he  left 
Egypt  and  retired  to  Palestine.  Secluded  in  a  little 
cell  at  Bethlehem,  amid  the  scenes  of  our  Saviour's 
nativity,  he  devoted  his  time  to  monkish  austerities, 
and  to  writing  Commentaries^  in  imitation  of  Origen, 
on  the  NeiD  Testament,  These  appeared  about  a.  d. 
388. 

In  that  upon  Ephesians,  he  represents  the  apostle 
as  teaching  that  all  mankind  shall  eventually  come,  in 
the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Son 
of  God,  into  a  perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  ^  and  that 
"in  the  end,  or  consummation  of  things,  all  shall  be 

1  Hieronymi  Comment.,  lib.  ii.,  in  Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  cap.  iv.  13,  tom.  iv.  part  i., 
edit.  Martianay. 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  179 

restored  to  their  origiDal  state,  and  be  again  united 
in  one  body."  ^  He  says,  "We  cannot  be  ignorant 
that  Christ's  blood  benefited  the  angels  and  those 
who  are  in  hell ;  though  Tve  know  not  the  manner 
in  which  it  produced  such  effects."^  In  another  pas- 
sage, he  represents  "the  whole  intelligent  creation 
by  the  simile  of  an  animal  body,"  of  which  the  flesh, 
arteries,  veins,  nerves,  and  bones,  having  been  dis- 
sected and  scattered  around,  are  all  to  be  united  again 
by  a  skilful  hand,  and  reanimated.  "Now,"  contin- 
ues he,  "in  the  restitution  of  all  things,  when  Christ, 
the  true  physician,  shall  come  to  heal  the  body  of 
the  universal  church,  torn  at  present  and  dislocated 
in  its  members,  then  shall  every  one,  according  to 
the  measure  of  his  own  faith  and  knoAvledge  of  the 
Son  of  God,  assume  his  proper  office,  and  return  to 
his  original  state ;  not,  however,  as  some  heretics 
represent,  that  all  will  be  changed  into  angels,  or 
made  into  creatures  of  one  uniform  rank.  But  each 
member  shall  be  made  perfect  according  to  his  pe- 
culiar office  and  capacity.  For  instance,  the  apos- 
tate angel  shall  become  such  as  he  was  created ;  and 
man,  who  has  been  cast  out  of  Paradise,  shall  be 
restored  thither  again.  And  this  shall  be  accomplished 
in  such  a  way,  as  that  all  shall  be  united  together  by 
mutual  charity,  so  that  the  members  will  delight  in 
each  other,  and  rejoice  in  each  other's  promotion.  Then 
shall  the  whole  body  of  Christ,  the  universal  church, 
such  as  it  was  originally,  dwell  in  the  celestial  Jeru- 
salem, which,  in   another  passage,  the    apostle  calls 

1  Hieronymi  Comment.,  lib.  ii.,  in  Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  cap.  iv.  4. 

2  Ditto,  ad  Ephes.,  cap.  iv.  10. 


180  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  mother  of  samts."^  Again,  Jerome  says,  "the 
apostate  angels,  and  the  prince  of  this  world,  and 
Lucifer,  the  morning  star,  though  now  ungovernable, 
licentiously  wandering  about,  and  plunging  themselves 
into  the  depths  of  sin,  shall,  in  the  end,  embrace  the 
happy  dominion  of  Christ  and  his  saints."^ 

At  the  time  of  writing  these  Commentaries,  Jerome 
was  towards  the  age  of  fifty.  His  -  influence  among 
the  orthodox  we  shall  have  abundant  occasion  to  ex- 
emplify. At  present,  however,  we  may  only  trace  a 
particular  friendship,  the  unhappy  termination  of 
which  we  shall  be  obliged  hereafter  to  describe  as 
agitating  the  church,  and,  in  some  measure,  affecting 
the  cause  of  Universalism.  Nearly  twenty  years 
since,  during  his  first  journey  into  the  East,  he  hap- 
pened to  stop  awhile  in  the  city  of  Aquileia,  at  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  Adriatic,  and  there  formed 
an  acquaintance  with  Rufinus,  a  young  and  promising 
scholar  of  the  place.  Their  friendship  continued  un- 
disturbed down  to  the  present  period,  and  even  some- 
what later.  Rufinus  had  early  followed  him  into  the 
East :  in  company  with  Melania,  a  noble  lady  of 
Rome,  he  had  sailed  to  Eg}q3t  in  a.  d.  372,  visited 
the  monks  of  Nitria,  spent  some  time  with  Didymus 
at  Alexandria,  and  then  retired,  probably  the  next 
year,  with  his  patroness,  to  Jerusalem.  Here  Me- 
lania employed  her  abundant  wealth  in  religious  and 
charitable  donations,  in  advancing  the  monastic  cause, 


1  Hicronymi  Comment.,  lib.  ii.,  in  Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  cap.  iv.  16. 

2  Ditto,  lib.  i.,  in  Epist.  ad  Ephes,  cap.  ii.  7.  In  other  works,  also,  written  about 
this  time,  Jerome  asserted  Universalism:  Hieronymi  Comment.,  lib.  ii.,  in  Epist. 
ad  Galatas,  cap.  iv.  1,  and  Comment,  in  Amos,  cap.  iv.  The  latter  was  not  com- 
posed till  about  A.  D.  390. 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  181 

and  in  supporting  the  numerous  pilgrims  who  resorted 
to  the  holy  places.  With  her  Rufinus,  among  others, 
enjoyed  a  quiet  retreat,  and  devoted  himself  to  study 
and  pious  services,  surrounded  by  the  venerable  ob- 
jects which  the  Holy  City  presented  to  awaken  his 
devotion.  He  still  remained  here,  when  Jerome  tooK' 
up  his  permanent  abode  at  Bethlehem,  only  six  miles 
distant.  Both  had  already  entered  freely  into  the 
sentiments  of  Origen  ;  and  their  present  intimacy  was 
well  calculated  to  cherish  those  notions.  There  is  no 
reason,  however,  to  suppose  that  Euiinus  was,  at  any 
time,  a  Universalist ;  ^  unless  we  may  derive  a  faint, 
and  it  seems  unwarrantable,  suspicion,  from  his  having 
preserved,  in  his  numerous  translations  from  Origen, 
those  passages  entire  which  taught  Universalism, 
while  he  altered  or  omitted  such  as  disagreed  with 
the  orthodox  Trinitarianism.  This  circumstance  does, 
indeed,  show  that,  if  he  did  not  believe  the  former 
doctrine,  he  nevertheless  regarded  it,  like  his  cotem- 
poraries,  as  no  reprehensible  error;  and  his  faithful 
attachment  to  John,  the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  confirms 
this  conclusion. 

Before  we  pass,  it  should  be  remarked  that  both 
Jerome  and  Rufinus,  though  Latin  writers  and  na- 
tives of  the  West,  belonged  more  properly  to  the 
eastern  church,  where  their  principal  connections  were 
formed,  and  where  their  doctrinal  education  was  ma- 
tured. 

Evagrius  Ponticus,  who  flourished  among  the  ortho- 

1  Huet  (Origenian.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  2,  quaest.  xi.,  §  25)  thinks  Rufinus  insinuated 
that  though  the  de\'il  would  he  endlessly  miserable,  yet  guilty  men  would  suffer 
only  temporary  punishment.  But  to  me,  the  passages  to  which  Huet  refers  convey 
no  intimation  of  the  latter  opinion,  but  rather  the  contrary. 


182  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

clox  of  this  period  as  a  scholar  and  monk  of 

A.  D.  390.  ,  ^ 

considerable  eminence,  must  be  pronounced 
a  Universalist,  on  the  undisputed  testimony  of  the 
Fifth  General  Council ;  in  which,  a  century  and  a  half 
after  his  death,  he  was  anathematized  with  Didymus, 
for  having  taught  the  restoration  of  all,  and  the  pre- 
existence  of  souls. ^  But  the  same  sentence  that  has 
preserved  the  memory  of  his  doctrine  destroyed  the 
obnoxious  part  of  his  wi'itings,  and  left  nothing  but  a 
few  works  consisting  chiefly  of  ceremonial  rules  and 
practical  instructions  for  monks.  In  these,  both  their 
subject  and  the  circumstance  of  their  having  been  tol- 
erated, render  it  improbable  that  anything  is  to  be 
found  to  our  purpose.  We  have,  therefore,  only  to 
add  a  brief  sketch  of  his  life,  and  then  proceed  to 
some  accounts  of  other  individuals. 

Having  come  from  his  native  country  of  Pontus  to 
Cappadocia,  not  far  from  a.  d.  375,  he  was  appointed 
reader  in  the  church  of  Cesarea,  by  Basil  the  Great ; 
on  whose  death  Gregory  Nyssen  ordained  him  deacon. 
After  a  wdiile  Evagrius  went  to  Constantinople,  where 
he  studied  the  Scriptures  under  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
and  was  by  him  promoted  to  the  archdeaconship.  Here 
he- remained  a  few  years  after  his  master  retired  from 
the  city ;  but,  being  at  length  obliged  to  flee  from  the 
matrimonial  jealousy  of  a  nobleman,  he  came  to  Jeru- 
salem, about  A.  D.  385,  and  was  received  and  sup- 
ported in  the  charitable  establishment  of  Melania.  In 
the  society  of  Rufinus  and  others  he  was  here  per- 
suaded to  embrace  the  monastic  life  ;  and,  after  a  resi- 
dence of  five  years  in  Palestine,  he  went,  in  a.  d.  390, 

1  CyrilU  Scythopolit.  Vit.  S.  P.  Sabae,  cap.  90. 


OF    UXIYEESALISM.  183 

to  the  famous  retreat  of  Nitria,  where  he  took  up  his 
permanent  abode  among  the  Origenists.  The  re- 
mainder of  his  life  was  passed  in  great  austerity,  and 
in  close  application  to  study  and  composition.  He 
lived  in  the  orthodox  communion,  and  died  at  the  age 
of  fifty-four,  with  the  reputation  of  much  sanctity  and 
considerable  learning.^ 

Were  it  allowable  to  indulge  conjecture  on  mere 
appearances,  we  might  conclude  that  nearly  all  the 
leading  Origenists  of  this  period  were  believers  in 
Universalism ;  for  such  is  the  impression  the  histo- 
rian must  naturally  feel,  in  contemplating  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  their  lives,  their  intimacy  with 
Didymus,  and  with  others  who  are  known  to  have 
held  that  doctrine,  and  their  respect  for  the  favorite 
father  whose  name  they  bore.  Passing  over  the  un- 
distinguished multitude,  who  had,  perhaps,  only  their 
austerity  and  wretchedness  to  recommend  them  to 
a  momentary  reputation,  and  whose  names  could  now 
form,  at  best,  but  a  blank  catalogue,  there  are  still 
two  or  three  who  must  here  be  introduced  to  notice. 
Palladius,  a  native  of  Galatia,  and  a  disciple  of  Eva- 
grius  Ponticus,  in  Egypt,  was  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  faithful  supporters  of  the  party.  He  was  now 
a  monk  in  the  solitude  of  Mtria  ;  but  ill-health  soon 
driving  him  into  the  world,  he  afterwards  obtained  a 
bishopric  in  Asia  Minor,  became  considerably  known 
by  the  part  he  took  in  the  public  afiairs  of  the  church, 
and   preserved   his   name   from   oblivion   by  writing 


1  We  must  not  confound  Evagrius  Ponticus  with  his  cotemporary  Evagrius  An- 
tiochenus,  nor  with  a  later  writer,  Evagrius  Scholasticus,  the  ecclesiastical  histo- 
rian. 


184  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

some  historical  or  biographical  works  which  yet  re- 
main. Another  influential  member  of  the  party  was 
the  venerable  Isiclorus,  an  aged  presbyter  of  Alexan- 
dria, whom  Athanasius  had  ordained  many  years  be- 
fore, and  who  had  spent  his  early  life  among  the 
monasteries  of  the  Nitrian  desert. 

Directing  our  view  to  the  churches  of  Palestine, 
we  behold  the  episcopal  chair  of  the  Holy  City 
filled  by  John  of  Jerusalem,  an  Origenist,  who,  with 
Isidorus,  will  hereafter  appear,  bearing  an  important 
part  in  the  subject  of  this  history,  and  affording  some 
evidence  that  he  was  a  Universalist.  He  had  lately 
succeeded  Cyrill  in  the  bishopric  of  Jerusalem,  where 
he  enjoyed  the  friendship  and  support  of  Melania, 
Rufinus,  and  their  associates.  Of  his  earlier  life,  we 
only  know  that  he  was  born  about  a.  d.  356,  that  his 
youth  was  devoted  to  the  monastic  discipline,  but 
that,  quitting  his  retirement,  he  was  ordained  presby- 
ter before  the  year  378,  and  that  he  was  chosen  to  the 
see  of  Jerusalem  in  a.  d.  387. 

In  most  of  the  Universalists  of  this  century  the 
influence    of  Orio^en's  writino^s  is  abun- 

A.  r>.  378  to  394.  ./>  rr^T 

dantly  mamiest.  Ihere  were  some, 
however,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  that  father's 
general  system  of  doctrine  and  turn  of  thought,  and 
who  will  not  be  suspected  of  having  derived  their 
views  from  him.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Antiochian 
or  Syrian  school  of  divines,  so  called,  dirfered  widely 
from  the  Alexandrian,  by  rejecting  the  allegorical 
mode  of  interpretation  and  other  fantastical  specula- 
tions. Among  them,  Diodorus,  Bishop  of  Tarsus,  is 
distinguished  for  the  apparent  soundness  of  his  judg- 


OF  UKIVERSALISM.  185 

ment,  and  for  the  influence  which  he  seems  to  liave 
exerted  in  the  Syrian  churches.  By  a  fragment,  pre- 
served from  his  once  numerous  wiitings,  we  find  that 
he,  too,  was  a  Universalist.  "A  perpetual  reward," 
says  he,  "is  appointed  to  the  good,  a  recompense  of 
their  works,  which  is  worthy  the  justice  and  equity  of 
the  Rewarder.  For  the  wicked,  also,  there  are 
punishments,  not  perpetual,  however,  lest  the  immor- 
tality prepared  for  them  should  become  a  disadvan- 
tage ;  but  they  are  to  be  tormented  for  a  certain  brief 
period,  proportioned  to  the  desert  and  measure  of 
their  faults  and  impiety,  according  to  the  amount  of 
malice  in  their  works.  They  shall,  therefore,  suffer 
punishment  for  a  brief  space  ;  but  immortal  blessed- 
ness, having  no  end,  awaits  them.  For,  if  the  rewards 
of  the  good  surpass  their  works  as  much  as  the  dura- 
tion of  the  eternity  prepared  for  them  exceeds  the 
duration  of  their  conflicts  in  this  world ;  so  the  pun- 
ishments to  be  inflicted  for  heinous  and  manifold  sins 
are  far  more  surpassed  by  the  magnitude  of  mercy. 
The  resurrection,  therefore,  is  regarded  as  a  blessing, 
not  only  to  the  good,  but  also  to  the  evil.  For  the 
grace  of  God  copiously  and  magnificently  honors  the 
good  [that  is,  beyond  their  deserts]  ;  and  it  adjudges 
punishment  to  the  evil  in  mercy  and  kindness."  ^ 

Diodorus  was,  in  early  life,  principal  of  a  monastic 
school  at  Antioch,  in  which  he  taught  with  great  repu- 
tation. Here  he  was  afterwards  ordained  presbyter ; 
and,  during  the  banishment  of  the  bishop,  by  the 
Arian  Emperor  Valens,  he  was  honored  with  the  charge 
of  the  church  in  that  metropolis  of  the  East.     About 

1  Assemani  Bibliothec.  Orientalis,  torn,  iii.,  part  i.,  p.  324. 


186  THE    AXCIKNT    HISTORY 

A.  D.  378,  lie  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Tarsus,  in  Cili- 
cia,  the  birthplace  of  St.  Paul ;  where  he  presided  till 
his  death,  in  the  year  393  or  394.  He  was  a  learned 
and  voluminous  wi'iter,  especially  of  Commentaries  on 
the  Scriptures  ;  but  his  works  have  all  perished  except 
fragments  quoted  by  ancient  authors.  Amidst  the 
prevalence  of  allegorical  interpretation,  he. adhered  to 
the  natural  and  simple  import  of  the  sacred  text ;  and 
it  is  supposed  that  his  example  contributed  to  estab- 
lish this  mode  of  exposition  among  the  Syi'ian  churches. 
He  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  other  Greek  fathers 
of  his  day,  Basil  the  Great,  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
Epiphanius,  and  Athanasius  ;  and,  though  he  was  sub- 
sequently suspected  of  having  favored  Nestorian  views 
of  the  Tyinity,  no  fault  was  ever  found  with  him  for 
his  Universalism  till  many  centuries  after  his  death. 
It  is  worthy  of  distinct  remark,  that  among  the 
scholars  who  studied  imder  him  while  at  Antioch 
were  John  Chrysostom  and  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia, 
afterwards  so  celebrated.^ 

Having  so  long  confined  ourselves  to  the  eastern 
churches,  where  alone  we  can  discover  the  prevalence 
of  Universalism,  we  may  now  turn  our  attention  to 
the  West.  A  multitude  of  obscure  and  almost  for- 
gotten names,  if  we  except  those  of  Optatus,  a  Nu- 
midian  bishop,  and  Philastrius,  an  Italian,  fill  the  list 
of  ecclesiastical  writers  among  the  Latins  in  the  inter- 
val between  the  time  of  Victorinus  and  the  present. 
Now,  however,  they  had  a  very  eminent  and  popular 
doctor  in  Ambrose,  archbishop  of  Milan  in  Italy,  ^  a 

1  For  notices  of  his  life,  see  Du  Pin's  Bib.  Pat.,  art.  Diodorus,  Bishop  of  Tarsus. 
Murdock's  Mosheim,  vol.  1.,  p.  295. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  187 

man  of  moderate  learning,  but  of  a  polite  education, 
of  the  most  vigorous  talents,  determined  courage,  and 
of  an  influence  so  powerful  as  to  approach  towards 
absolute  authority  in  the  state  as  well  as  in  the  church. 
Of  the  future"  condition  of  mankind,  his  views  nearly 
coincided  with  those  which  Hilary  and  Lactantius  had 
before  advanced.  All  who  have  attained 
in  this  life  to  the  character  of  perfect 
saints,  such  as  the  apostles  and  some  others,  will,  he 
supposed,  rise  from  the  dead  in  the  first  resurrection ; 
and  enduring,  with  little  pain,  the  ordeal  of  the  flam- 
ing sword,  or  the  baptism  of  fire,  at  the  gate  of  Para- 
dise, they  will  quickly  enter  into  everlasting  joy.  But 
the  imperfect  saints  will  undergo  a  trial  severer  in 
proportion  to  their  vices  ;  and  such  as  have  only  been 
believers,  without  the  virtues  of  the  gospel,  whom  he 
denominates  the  sinners^  will  remain  in  the  torments 
of  fire  till  the  second  resurrection,  and  perhaps  still 
longer,  that  they  may  be  purified  from  their  wicked- 
ness. These  three  classes,  the  perfect  saints,  the  im- 
perfect, and  the  sinners,  shall  each  be  arraigned, 
except,  perhaps,  the  first,  at  the  great  judgment-day ; 
and,  what  is  remarkable,  all  who  are  then  tried  shall 
sooner  or  later  be  saved.  But  there  is  another,  a 
fourth  class,  which  he  distinguishes  as  the  impious  or 
the  infidels,  who,  together  with  the  devil  and  his  an- 
gels, shall  never  be  brought  to  judgment,  because  they 
have  been  already  condemned.  For  these  he  appar- 
ently reserves  no  chance  of  restoration,  but  leaves 
them  to  an  eternity  of  hopeless  suflering.^ 

1  Arabrosii  Mediolanensis,  in  Psalm  i.,  Enarrat.,  §  51,  52,  53,  54,  56;  inPs.  cxviii., 
Exposit.  senn.  iii.,  §  14—17,  and  serm.  xx.,  §  12,  13,  14,  23,  24.  The  dates  of  these 
works  are  placed  from  A.  D.  386  to  A.  D.  390. 


188  THE    ANCIENT   HISTOEY 

The  author  usually  quoted  under  the  name  of 
Ambrosiaster,  who  is  generally  supposed  to  have 
been  one  Hilary,  a  deacon  of  Rome,  held  that  all  such 
believers  as  embrace  erroneous  doctrines,  while  they 
nevertheless  retain  the  essential  principles  of  Christi- 
anity, must  be  subjected  to  the  purification  of  fire,  in 
the  future  world,  before  they  can  be  saved  J  He 
likewise  taught  that  our  Saviour  descended,  after  his 
crucifixion,  to  the  invisible  regions  of  the  dead,  and 
there  converted  all,  whether  impious  or  ordinary 
sinners,  who  willingly  sought  his  aid.^  Indeed, 
Christ's  mission,  according  to  him,  enabled  even  the 
erring  and  apostatized  powers  of  heaven  to  cast  off 
the  yoke  of  the  devil,  and  to  return  to  God ;  ^  still, 
it  appears  to  have  been  his  decided  belief  that  there 
were  cases  of  such  o])stinate  rebellion,  among  wicked 
souls  as  well  as  angels,  as  to  be  past  all  recovery. 

With  the  notice  of  this  Tva-iter,  we  close,  for  the 
present,  our  account  of  the  orthodox  Christians. 

During  more  than  half  of  this  century,  the  Arians 
were  numerous  enough  to  dispute  the  superiority  in 
the  church,  especially  in  the  East;  and  it  is  natural 
to  inquire.  What  were  their  sentiments  with  regard 
to  the  ultimate  salvation  of  the  world  ?  But  we  shall 
seek  in  vain  for  their  own  testimony  in  answer. 
Though  supported,  in  their  da}^,  by  the  influence  of 
eminent  bishops,  and  defended  by  the  labors  of 
learned  doctors,  the  victorious  fortune  of  their  adver- 


1  Comment,  ad  Epist.  1  Corinth.,  cap.  iii.  15,  in  Append,  ad  Arabrosii  Mediola- 
nensis  Oper.,  torn.  ii. 

2  Comment,  in  Epist.  ad  Ei^hes.,  cap.  iv.  8,  9. 

3  Ditto,  ad  Ephes.,  cap.  iii.  10.    N.  B.— These  Commentaries  are  supposed  to 
have  been  written  about  A.  d.  384. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  189 

saries  has  obliterated  almost  every  fragment  of  their 
writings,  and  left  a  wide  erasure  which  no  learning 
nor  art  can  restore.  We  only  know  that,  except  in 
what  related  to  the  Trinity,  their  doctrine  was  consid- 
ered the  same  with  that  of  the  Consubstantialists  ;  and 
it  seems  that,  in  all  the  passion  of  controversial  war- 
fare, they  never  reproached  thejr  unsparing  opponents 
for  their  frequent  avowal  of  Universalism.^  These 
circumstances  may  strengthen  a  conjecture,  which  is 
not  in  itself  improbable,  that  the  doctrine  received 
about  the  same  degree  of  patronage  among  l)oth 
parties ;  so  that  neither  was  under  temptation  to 
accuse  the  other.  From  similar  considerations,  the 
suspicion  of  ambiguity  naturally  rests,  likewise,  upon 
the  few  Sabellians  of  this  period.  And  we  may 
extend  the  remark  to  the  small  schismatical  sects  of 
Novatians,  Donatists,  and  Meletians  ;  who  were  sep- 
arated from  the  orthodox  church  only  by  some  trivial 
distinctions  of  discipline  and  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment, or  by  the  irregular  succession  of  their  bishops. 
The  uncertain,  or  perhaps  divided  opinions  of  the 
Manicheans,  on  the  subject  of  Universal  Salvation, 
have  been  already  mentioned.     At  present,  however, 

1  Eunomius,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  Arians,  who  flourished  from  A.  D.  360  to 
394.  is  charged  by  three  Greek  writers  of  the  12th  century  with  haying  held  that 
all  the  threatenings  of  eternal  torments  were  intended  only  to  terrify  mankind, 
and  were  never  meant  to  be  executed.  (See  Balsamon  ad  Canon,  i.,  Constantino- 
pol;  and  Harmenopulus,  De  Sect.  13;  and  J.  Zonaras  ad  Canon,  in  Deiparam.) 
The  authority  of  these  modern  Greeks,  however,  is  but  small ;  and  in  this  case  it 
is  not  sustained  by  any  testimony  more  ancient,  nor  by  the  fragments  of  Euno- 
mius yet  extant.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  foiTnal  Declaration  of  Faith  which  he 
sent  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  A.  D.  383,  he  says,  "•  they  who  persevere  in  im- 
piety or  sin  till  the  close  of  life  shall  be  delivered  to  everlasting  punishment." 
(Fabricii  Biblioth.  Graec,  tom.  viii.,  p.  260.)  At  the  end  of  his  Epilog,  ad  Apolo- 
giam,  he  remarks  that,  in  the  general  judgment,  Christ  will  consign  such  as  make 
light  of  sin,  to  remediless  suffering.    Cavei  Hist.  Literar.,  art.  Evmomius,  p.  222.) 


190  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

it  seems  to  have  become  the  general  belief,  at  least 
of  those  in  Africa,^  that  many  human  souls  would 
prove  utterly  irreclaimable,  and  be  therefore  stationed 
forever,  as  a  guard,  upon  the  frontiers  of  the  world 
of  darkness.  The  sect  had  now  increased  to  a  vast 
number,  although  abhorred  by  every  other  party, 
and  indefatigably  opposed  by  a  large  proportion  of  tlie 
orthodox  writers,  from  Eusebius  Pamphilus  down- 
wards ;  and  it  lurked  in  all  parts  of  Christendom, 
notwithstanding  it  had  been  repeatedly  proscribed  by 
the  edicts  of  successive  emperors.  Already  could 
the  alarming  and  inextinguishable  heresy  boast  of 
many  eminent  advocates,  and  of  some  respectable 
authors ;  and  for  several  years  it  was  honored  with 
the  patronage  of  the  young  Augustine,  the  future 
Bishop  of  Hippo  and  renowned  orthodox  father.  The 
care  of  a  pious  mother  had  trained  him  up  in  the 
principles  of  the  Catholic  faith ;  but  at  the  age  of 
seventeen  he  imbibed  the  sentiments  of  Mani ;  and, 
though  never  a  very  zealous  partisan  nor  a  thoroughly 
instructed  disciple,  he  continued  to  cherish  the  pro- 
scribed doctrine  till  he  entered  on  his  thirty-first  3'ear. 
Eesiding,  however,  at  Milan  in  Italy,  in  a.  d.  385,  he 
wa^  so  struck  with  the  arguments  and  illustrations  of 
the  eloquent  Archbishop  Ambrose,  that  he  resolved  to 
forsake  the  heresy ;  and  in  the  course  of  a  year  or 
two  he  was  fully  converted  to  the  orthodox  religion, 
and  received,  by  baptism,  into  the  church. 

1  Lardner's  Credibility,  etc.,  chap.  Mani  and  his  Followers,  sect,  iv.,  §  18. 


or   UNIVERSALISM.  191 


CHAPTER    YII. 

FROM  A.  D.   391   TO   A.  D.   404. 

The  three  principal  sees  of  Christendom  were  now 
filled  by  Pope  Siricius  at  Rome,  by  the 
ambitious  and  unprincipled  Theophilus  at 
Alexandria,  and  by  Evagrius  (not  Evagrius  Ponticus) 
at  Antioch.  Of  some  inferior  yet  distinguished 
bishoprics,  that  of  Constantinople  was  held  by  old 
IN'ectarius,  successor  of  Gregory  Nazianzen ;  that  of 
the  island  Cyprus,  by  Epiphanius,  the  aged  and 
persevering  enemy  of  the  Origenists ;  and  John ,  the 
Universalist,  presided  over  that  of  Jerusalem.  In 
the  West,  Ambrose  governed  the  churches  of  Milan, 
and  by  his  astonishing  influence  controlled  the  civil  as 
well  as  the  religious  concerns  of  Italy  and  Gaul.  Of 
a  multitude  of  ecclesiastical  writers  who  flourished  at 
this  time  we  may  here  mention  only  three :  the 
learned  Jerome,  whose  fame  had  already  filled  the 
world;  young  Chrysostom,  the  prince  of  Christian 
orators,  whose  renown  began  to  extend  beyond  the 
sphere  of  his  labors  in  the  great  city  of  Antioch  ;  and 
the  immortal  Augustine,  who  was  rising  into  notice, 
amidst  his  native  Numidia  in  Africa.  Of  the  authors 
formerly  mentioned,  Titus  of  Bostra  and  Basil  the 
Great  had  long  been  dead  ;  Gregory  Nazianzen  expired 
in  his  native  village,  about  two  years  before ;  Didy- 


192  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

mus  still  survived,  at  Alexandria,  but  in  extreme  old 
age ;  and  Gregory  Nyssen  had  approached  within 
three  ot  four  years  the  close  of  his  life.  Jerome  con- 
tinued at  his  cell  in  Bethlehem ;  Evagrius  Ponticus 
and  Palladius  of  Gallatia  were  among  the  monasteries 
of  Nitria ;  and  Isidorus  was  at  Alexandria,  under 
the  patronage  of  the  Archbishop  Theophilus. 

The  long  struggle  between  the  Consubstantialists 
and  the  Arians  had  now  ceased  throughout  the 
civilized  w^orld.  The  latter,  driven  from  all  their 
numerous  churches  in  the  East,  by  the  vigorous  aiid 
unsparing  persecution  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  and 
from  those  in  the  West,  by  the  imperial  authority  of 
Gratian,  had  taken  refuge  among  the  barbarous 
nations  of  Goths  and  Vandals.  The  schismatical  sects 
were,  in  a  measure,  suppressed;  and  for  a  moment 
the  weapons  of  controversy  and  violence,  which  the 
orthodox  had  so  long  wielded,  seemed  to  hang  useless 
in  their  hands.  But  an  occasion  for  their  use  soon 
occurred,  among  themselves,  in  a  personal  conten- 
tion, obscure  and  trifling  at  first,  which  swelled  and 
extended,  by  degrees,  till  it  agitated  the  whole 
church. 

Epiphanius,  visiting  Jerusalem,  this  year,i  and 
preaching  there  before  a  large  concourse  in  the 
cathedral  church,  made  an  hisidious  attack  upon  John 
the  bishop,  by  inveighing  against  Origen,  whom  the 
latter  was   known   to    admire.     He   reproached   that 

1  The  dates  in  this  contention  with  the  Origenists,  down  to  the  year  397, 1  have 
endeavored,  with  some  care,  to  calculate  from  Martianay's  chronological  notes 
prefixed  to  the  fourth  torn,  of  his  edition  of  Jerome,  and  from  several  expressions 
found  in  Epist.  xxxiii.  and  xxxviii.,  Hieronymi  Opp.,  torn,  if.,  part  ii.  Some  of 
these  dates  have  manifestly  been  mistaken  by  Huet,  Du  Pin,  Fleury,  etc. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  193 

ancient  ftither,  in  liis  wonted  strain,  as  the  parent  of 
Arianism  and  other  heresies  ;  till  at  length  John  sent 
his  archdeacon,  in  view  of  the  whole  assembly,  to 
request  him  to  forbear.  A  procession  followed  to 
the  place  of  our  Saviour's  crucifixion ;  and  on  the 
way  the  two  prelates  betrayed  some  indications  of 
resentment  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  disregard  on  the 
other.  After  their  return,  and  while  the  people  still 
waited,  John  himself  addressed  them ;  and,  as  many 
opposers  of  the  Origenists  actually  attributed  to  tlie 
Deity  a  body  like  our  own,  he  declaimed  vehemently 
against  that  gross  error,  in  order  to  reflect  the 
suspicion  of  it  upon  Epiphauius.  But  the  latter, 
immediately  standing  up,  joined  his  brother  in  severely 
reprobating  the  notion ;  then,  turning  suddenly, 
called  upon  the  assembly  to  condemn  likewise  the 
perverse  dogmas  of  Origen ;  and  he  even  besought 
and  warned  John  himself  to  avoid  them.  This  un- 
disguised attack  produced  some  sensation  among  the 
people,  and  left,  it  seems,  an  indelible  impression  on 
the  minds  of  both  the  bishops.^ 

A  year  or  two  afterwards,  Epiphanius  came  again 
into    Palestine,    and    spent    a    while    at    a 

.  A.  D.  393. 

monastery  he  had  founded  in  his  native 
village,  about  twenty  miles  west  of  Jerusalem. 
Though  the  natural  simplicity  of  the  Bishop  of  Cyprus 
may,  perhaps,  forbid  the  suspicion  of  intentional 
T\Tong,  yet  his  inconsiderate  officiousness  and  his 
childish  vanity,  which  led  him  sometimes  to  overlook 
the  prescribed  rights  of  others,  gave  just  occasion  for 

1  Hieronymi,  Epiet.  xxxviii.  vel.  61,  torn,  iv.,  part  ii.,  pp.  312,  313,  edit.  Martia- 
nay ;  and  Epipbanii.  Epist.  ad  Johannem  Hierssolym.  in  eodem  torn.,  p.  824. 


194  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  apprehensions  of  John,*  that  this  visit  would  be 
marked  with  some  act  of  intrusion.  No  sooner  had 
Paulinianus,  the  brother  of  Jerome,  arrived  on  busi- 
ness from  Bethlehem,  than  Epiphanius,  who  had  long 
sought  the  opportunity,  ordered  him  to  be  seized, 
stopped  his  mouth  to  prevent  his  refusal,  and  then, 
by  force,  made  him  deacon, —  a  mode  of  procedure 
not  very  unfrequent  in  that  age.  A  few  days  after- 
ward he  seized  him  again,  during  the  services  of  the 
monastery,  and  with  the  same  violence  imposed  on 
him  the  more  sacred  ordination  of  presbyter.  This 
official  act,  performed  by  Epiphanius  out  of  liis  own 
jurisdiction,  and  in  the  neighborhood,  if  not  within 
the  diocess,  of  Jerusalem,  highly  exasperated  John ; 
who  complained  angrily  of  the  insult  he  had  sufiered 
in  the  ordination  of  one  of  his  monks  of  Bethlehem 
without  his  knowledge  and  permission.  An  unfounded 
report  also  reached  his  ears  that  Epiphanius  was  in 
the  habit  of  abusing  him  in  his  public  prayers.  The 
pilgrims  who  resorted  to  the  Holy  City  heard,  and 
on  their  return  probably  circulated,  his  complaints 
and  invectives  ;  and  he  at  length  threatened  openly  to 
send  letters  to  the  churches  of  the  East  and  West, 
and  thus  publish  his  wrongs  to  the  world. ^ 

The  news  of  the  disturbance  he  had  left  behind  him 
in    Palestine   soon   reached   Epiphanius,   at 

A.  D.  394.      ^  ^    ,  ^  ^  ^   ^ 

C^^^rus ;   and  he  at   length  wrote  to   John, 

endeavoring  to  excuse  his  ordination  of  Paulinianus, 

by  alleging  a  practice  among  the  bishops  of  his  island 


1  Epiphanii,  Epifet,  ad  Johan.,  p.  823. 

2  Epiphanii,  Epist.  ad.  Johan,  p.  823;   and  Hieronynai,  Epist.  xsxix.,  vel.  62,  p. 
337. 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  195 

to  officiate,  on  similar  occasions,  without  regard  to 
each  other's  jurisdictions.  He  declared,  however, 
that  he  well  knew  that  John's  wrath  arose,  not  from 
this  ordination,  but  from  the  old  reproof  for  Ori- 
genism ;  and,  earnestly  beseeching  him  to  'save  him- 
self from  the  "untoward  generation  of  heretics,"  he 
proceeded  to  enumerate  the  several  errors  of  Ori- 
gen.  This  catalogue,  though  nearly  the  same  he 
had  published  eighteen  years  before,  is  distinguished 
for  containing  the  first  censure,  on  record,  against 
Universalism.  "1.  Who  among  the  Catholics,"  said 
he,  "and  such  as  adorn  their  faith  with  good  works, 
can  hear,  with  an  undisturbed  mind,  the  doctrine  of 
Origen,  or  believe  that  notorious  declaration  of  his. 
The  Son  cannot  behold  the  Father,  nor  the  Holy 
Ghost  the  Son!  2.  Who  can  endm-e  him,  when  he 
says  that  souls  were  originally  angels  in  heaven, 
but  cast  down  into  this  world,  after  sinninir  in  the 
celestial  state,  and  imprisoned  here  in  bodies,  as  in 
sepulchres,  in  order  to  punish  them  for  their  former 
transgressions  !  so  that  the  bodies  of  believers  are  not 
the  temple  of  Clu'ist,  but  the  prisons  of  the  damned. 
3.  That  also  which  he  strove  to  establish  I  know  not 
whether  to  laugh  or  grieve  at.  Origen,  the  renowned 
doctor,  dared  to  teach  that  the  devil  is  again  to  become 
what  he  originally  was, — to  return  to  his  former  dig- 
nity, and  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  I  Oh,  wick- 
edness !  who  is  so  mad  and  stupid  as  to  believe  that 
holy  John  Baptist,  and  Peter,  and  John  the  Apostle 
and  Evangelist,  and  that  Isaiah  also,  and  Jeremiah, 
and  the  rest  of  the  prophets,  are  to  become  fellow- 
heirs  with  the  devil  in  the  kin^^dom  of  heaven  !     4.  I 


196  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

pass  over  his  frivolous  explanation  of  the  coats  of 
skins ;  with  what  labor,  with  how  many  arguments, 
he  strove  to  make  us  believe  that  those  coats  were 
human  bodies  !  Among  other  things,  he  asks,  Was 
God  a  leather-dresser,  that  he  should  talce  the  sJciiis  of 
animals  and  fit  them  into  coats  for  Adam  and  Eve  9 
Therefore  it  is  manifest,  says  Origen,  that  it  is  spoTcen 
of  our  bodies.  5.  Who  can  patiently  bear  with  him 
while  he  denies  the  resurrection  of  this  flesh?  as  he 
manifestly  does  in  his  explanations  of  the  first  psalm, 
and  in  many  other  places.  6.  Or  who  can  endure  his 
notion  that  paradise,  or  the  garden  of  Eden,  was  in 
the  third  heaven  !  thus  transferring  it  from  the  earth 
to  the  skies,  and,  by  an  allegorical  interpretation, 
representing  its  trees  to  be  angelic  powers  !  7 .  Who 
but  must  instantly  reject  and  condemn  his  delusions, 
that  those  waters  above  the  firmament,  mentioned  in 
Genesis,  are  not  waters,  but  certain  celestial  spirits  ; 
and  that  those  under  the  firmament  are  demons ! 
Why,  then,  do  we  read  that  in  the  deluge  the  win- 
dows of  heaven  were  opened,  and  the  waters  of  the 
flood  descended?  Oh,  the  madness  and  stupidity  of 
men  who  have  neglected  what  is  said  in  Proverbs, 
My  son,  hear  the  woi^d  of  thy  father,  and  forsake  not 
the  law  of  thy  mother!  8.  I  do  not  attempt  to  dispute 
against  all  his  errors ;  they  are  innumerable ;  but 
among  other  things  he  even  dared  to  say  that  Adam 
lost  the  image  of  God  !  when  there  is  not  one  passage 
of  Scripture  that  intimates  it.  If,  indeed,  that  were 
the  case,  then  would  all  things  in  the  world  never 
have  been  made  subject  to  Adam's  posterity,  the  human 


OF    UNIVERSALTSM.  197 

race,  as  James  the  apostle  teaches."^  Such  are  the 
particulars  that  Epiphanius  selected  for  special  repre- 
hension. He  again  exhorted  John,  as  his  own  son, 
to  abstain  from  the  heresy ;  and  lamented  that  so 
many  of  their  brethren  had  been  already  made  "  food 
for  the  devil." 

We  have  said  that  in  this  passage  occurs  the  first 
censure  which  is  to  be  found  in  all  antiquity  against 
the  doctrine  of  Universalism.  We  must  remark, 
however,  that,  even  here,  the  censure  falls,  as  the 
reader  may  perceive,  not  on  the  doctrine  of  the  salva- 
tion of  all  mankind,  but  on  that  of  the  salvation  of 
the  devil.  This  distinction,  though  it  may  seem  cap- 
tious, is  of  some  consequence  to  an  accurate  under- 
standing of  subsequent  occurrences. 

With  the  Letter  to  John,  Epiphanius  sent  others, 
on  the  same  subject,  to  the  Bishops  of  Palestine  ;  ^ 
and,  as  copies  of  the  former  as  well  as  of  the  lattei 
were  freely  circulated  through  the  province,  the  mat- 
ter soon  awakened  general  interest.^  Many  of  the 
people,  many  of  the  clergy,  seem  to  have  adhered  to 
John;  and  Rufinus  and  Melania  espoused  his  cause, 
as  did  also  Palladius  of  Galatia,'*  who  had  lately 
arrived  from  Mtria.  But  others,  especially  the  monks 
of  Bethlehem,  took  up  for  Epiphanius,  withdrew  from 


1  Epiphanii  Epist.  ad  Johannem,  inter  Hieronymi  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  part  ii.,  edit. 
Martianay.  I  give  a  faithful  translation  of  Epiphanius's  Catalogue  of  Origen's 
errors;  but  I  have  inserted  the  figures  between  the  several  particulars;  omitted 
three  uninteresting,  and  to  most  readers  unintelligible  arguments  which  in  the 
original  stood  between  the  2d  and  3d,  the  4th  and  5th,  and  the  6th  and  7th  errors; 
and  passed  over  the  exhortation  which  occurred  between  the  7th  and  8th. 

2  Hieronymi,  Epist.  xxxviii.  adv.  Johan.  Hierosol.,  p.  334. 

3  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxiii.  vel.  101,  ad  Pammach,  p.  248. 
*  Epiphanii,  Epist.  ad  Johan.,  pp.  827,  829. 


I'JS  the    ancient   HISTOlir 

the  communion  of  their  accused  bishop/  and  in  return, 
suflered  from  him,  it  appears,  some  condemnatory 
sentence  for  their  refractory  procedure.^ 

Jerome,  the  admirer  and  imitator  of  Origen,  we 
should  expect,  of  course,  to  discover  among  his  bish- 
op's adherents  ;  but  two  or  three  circumstances  cou- 
spired  to  engage  him  on  the  opposite  side.  The 
strongest  affections  of  nature  inclined  him  to  defend 
the  ordination  of  his  own  brother ;  some  personal 
differences  he  had  formerly  had  with  the  professed 
Origenists,  both  at  Rome  and  Nitria,  were,  perhaps, 
remembered  with  resentment ;  and  his  pride  of  learn- 
ing, his  haughty  and  petulant  spirit,  must  have  made 
him  restless  under  the  immediate  government  of  an 
ecclesiastical  superior,  who  was  his  junior  in  age,  and 
whom  he  might  justly  regard  as  far  his  inferior  in 
talents  and  acquirements.  He  joined  the  party  of 
Epiphanius,  or  perhaps  gathered  it,  and  translated  the 
Letter  to  John,  for  the  private  use  of  such  monks  as 
were  acquainted  only  with  the  Latin  language.  His 
translation,  thous^h  intended  only  for  confi- 

A.  D.  395.  ^  .  .     '  .  n  -.      .  1 

dential  cn-culation,  found  its  way,  the  next 
year,^  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  it  was  immediately  censured 
by  Eufinus  as  unfaithful  to  the  honorable  appellations 
bestowed,  in  the  original,  upon  his  bishop.  From 
this  moment  we  discover  an  open  breach  in  the  early 
and  long-cherished  affection  of  the  two  friends.  Je- 
rome, who  could  not  bear  reproof,  defended  himself 
and  resented  the  criticism  with  his  accustomed  abuse, 
by  calling  its  author  a  pseudo-monk.'^ 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  adv.  Johan.  xxxviii.,  p.  308. 

2  Ditto,  and  p.  333,  and  Epist.  xxxix.  ad  Theophilur^..  p.  338,  etc. 
s  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxiii.,  p.  248. 

*  Ditto. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  199 

The  noise  of  the  quarrel  in  Palestine  had  reached 
Alexandria ;  and  Isidorus ,  the  aged  patron  of  Ori- 
genism,  felt  himself  called  upon  to  encourage  his 
brethren.  Relying  with  a  misplaced  confidence  on 
the  integrity  of  his  former  friends,  he  addressed  a 
letter  to  one  Yincentius,  a  presbyter  and  monk  at 
Bethlehem,  whom  he  had  probably  seen  about  ten 
years  before  in  company  with  Jerome  in  Egypt.  He 
exhorted  him  to  stand  firm  on  the  rock  of  faith,  nor 
be  terrified  by  the  threats  of  the  adversaries.  "I  my- 
self," added  he,  "  shall  soon  come  to  Jerusalem,  and 
the  band  of  enemies  shall  be  dispersed,  who,  always 
resisting  the  faith  of  the  church,  attempt  now  to  dis- 
turb the  minds  of  the  simpler  sort.''^  But  Vincen- 
tius,  it  seems,  had  already  followed  the  example  of  his 
master  Jerome,  in  siding  with  Epiphanius ;  and  this 
letter  accordingly  proved  a  providential  warning  in- 
stead of  an  encouragement. 

The  increasing  contention,  which  attracted  the  no- 
tice of  foreign  Christians,  alarmed  the  friends  of  tran- 
quillity at  home.  Archelaus,  one  of  the  civil  officers, 
of  the  province,  was  vainly  endeavoring  to  allay  the 
disturbance.  He  invited  both  parties  to  a  mutual 
conference,  in  which  they  should  agree  upon  a  com- 
mon declaration  of  faith ;  but  when  the  day  arrived 
John  was  absent  on  some  parochial  duty ;  and  he 
never  appeared,  though  the  council,  in  reply  to  his 
excuse,  offered  to  wait  his  convenience,  at  least  for  a 
few  days.^ 

Two  months  afterwards  a  deputation  arrived,  not 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxviii.,  p.  330. 

2  Ditto,  pp.  331,  332. 


200  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

unexpectedly,  from  Theophilus,  the  powerful  and 
aspiring  Archbishop  of  Egypt ;  who,  either  on  the 
request  'of  John,  or  at  his  own  suggestion,  gladly 
embraced  this  opportunity  to  extend  his  influence  over 
the  foreign  churches  of  Palestine.  Isidorus  himself 
was  entrusted  with  the  commission,  and  as  deputy 
brought  letters  from  the  Alexandrian  primate  to  John 
and  Jerome,  the  respective  heads  of  the  contending 
parties.  But  a  professed  and  zealous  Origenist  was 
much  better  qualified  to  inflame  than  to  compose  a 
difficulty  in  which  his  favorite  doctrine  was  involved ; 
and  on  his  arrival  his  subserviency  to  the  Bishop  of 
Jerusalem  was  so  manifest,  that  Jerome  refused,  with 
reason,  his  partial  mediation.^ 

Frustrated  in  the  special  object  of  his  mission, 
Isidorus  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  assistance 
of  John.  The  letter  of  Epiphauius  had  now 
lain  unanswered  before  the  public  nearly 
two  years ;  and  the  bishop  availed  himself  of  his 
friend's  assistance  to  produce  a  Heply.  It  was  ad- 
dressed, in  the  name  of  John,  to  Theophilus  at  Alex- 
andria, to  whose  decision  it  appealed.  The  author, 
or  authors,  related  the  histor}'  of  the  difficulty,  com- 
plained of  the  ordination  of  Paulinianus,  inveighed 
against  Jerome,  and  charged  him  w^th  inconsistency 
in  reproaching  Origen,  whom  he  had  translated  and 
extolled ;  and  they  finally  proceeded  to  an  examina- 
tion of  the  errors  which  Epiphauius  had  enumerated, 
and,  by  implication,  charged  against  John.  Out  of 
the  eight,  how^ever,  the  writers  answered  to  three 
only  :  to  the  j^as-^,  concerning  the  Trinity ;  to  the  sec- 

1  HIeron.,  Epist.  xxxviii.,  pp.  330,  331. 


OF    UNIVER-^ALISM.  201 

ondy  conceruiDg  pre-existence  ;  and  to  the  fifth ,  con- 
cerning the  resurrection.  On  these  three  ptnnts,  they 
explained  themselves  favorably,^  or  absolutely  rejected 
the  errors  alleged  ;  but,  if  we  may  rely  on  the  minute 
account,  or  on  the  confident  judgment  of  their  preju- 
diced adversary,  Jerome,  they  felt  unprepared  to  dis- 
claim the  other  five  particulars  in  tlie  catalogue. 
That  they,  cautiously  avoided  any  notice  of  them  is 
indubitable  ;  and  we  may  adopt  the  very  natural  con- 
clusion that  the}^  really  held  what  they  so  warily 
passed  over,  the  salvation  of  the  devil  as  well  as  the 
allegorical  expositions  of  Origen.^  With  this  Rephj 
to  EpiphaniuSy  or  Apology  to  Theophilus,  Isidorus 
departed  for  Alexandria  ;  and  he  probably  assisted  in 
spreading  copies  of  it  through  the  churches. 

These  copies  were  extensively  dispersed,  and  soon 
reached  Ital}^  and  Rome,  where  the  Letter  of 
Epiphanius  had  been  already  circulated.  Here,  as  in 
other  places,  the  people  were  variously  aflected ; 
some  inclined  to  one  party,  some  to  the  other ;  and 
one  of  Jerome's  correspondents  wrote  to  him  on  the 
perplexities  which  the  subject  had  occasioned,  re- 
questing a  full  statement  of  the  affair.  The  com- 
munication of  intelligence  through  a  distance  of  nearly 
^YQ  hundred  leagues  must  have  been  dilatory  and 
tedious  ;  and  Jerome  seems  to  have  taken  the  earliest 
opportunity,  on  receipt  of  the  request,  to 
compose   his    bitter    and    Sarcastic    Answer 

1  According  to  Jerome  (Epist.  xxxviii.),  they  prevaricated  on  these  points;  but 
I  think  it  evident  from  his  own  account  that  they  fully  denied  that  of  pre-existence. 

2  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxviii.,  adv.  Johan.  HierosoljTQ.  Their  rejection  of  the  error 
concerning  pre-existence,  would,  however,  involve  a  denial  of  those  concerning  the 
coats  of  skins,  and  the  garden  of  Eden.  John's  Apology  to  Theophilus  is  lost; 
and  we  can  judge  of  its  contents  only  from  Jerome's  account. 


202  TPIE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

to  John's  Apology.  He  addressed  it,  for  the  most 
part,  directly  to  John  himself;  but  it  was  published 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  his  inquiring  friend  at 
Rome.  The  origin  of  the  quarrel,  the  measures  that 
had  been  adopted  for  a  reconciliation,  the  answers 
which  John  had  given  to  the  three  errors,  and  his 
silence  with  regard  to  the  rest,  were  related  and 
discussed  at  considerable  length ;  and  Jerome  con- 
cluded, by  defending  his  own  party  from  his  bishop's 
accusations,  and  by  retorting  on  him  the  charge  of 
disturbing  the  church.^ 

He  had  just  received  a  letter  from  Theophilus, 
exhorting  the  monks  to  peace  and  reconciliation  with 
their  bishop.  It  was  an  object  of  much  importance 
to  secure  the  assistance,  or  at  least  the  neutrality,  of 
this  wordly  minded  but  active  and  influential  prelate, 
who  had  hitherto  appeared  to  favor  the  cause  of  John. 
Jerome  immediately  replied  to  him  in  a  flattering 
and  insinuating  strain  ;  and  declared  that,  agreeably 
to  his  recommendation,  he  himself  was  sincerely  for 
peace  ;  for  such  peace,  however,  as  would  in  reality, 
be  cordial, —  for  the  peace  of  Christ ;  intimating  at  the 
same  time  that  there  never  could  be  hearty  concord 
between  the  faithful  and  the  heretics.  He  embraced 
this  opportunity,  likewise,  to  lay  before  Theophilus  a 
history  of  the  disturbance,  to  defend  the  ordination 
of  his  brother,  and  to  exonerate  himself  from  that 
charge  of  inconsistency  which  John  had  urged  against 
him  for  having  translated  the  works  of  Origen  that  he 
now  condemned.^ 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxviii. 

2  Hieron.,  Epist.  xxxix.  ad  Theophilum. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  203 

Perhaps  no  man  in  that  age  possessed  means 
more  efficient  for  diffusing  his  prejudices,  than  Jerome. 
From  his  narrow  and  uncouth  cell  at  Bethlehem,  he 
could  easily  excite  disaffection  or  distrust  in  the 
remotest  parts  of  Christendom.  He  maintained  an 
extensive  correspondence  ;  the  fame  of  his  knowledge 
procured  him  a  welcome  introduction  wherever  he 
sought  assistance :  and  his  penetrating  discernment 
readily  distinguished  those  who  would  prove  most 
useful  as  coadjutors.  The  celebrated  Augustine,  now 
Bishop  of  Hippo  in  Africa,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
west  of  Carthage,  was  too  eminent  for  him  to  over- 
look ;  and  he  had  already  addressed  him  a  letter,  with 
the  information  that  Origen's  works  abounded  with 
errors.^  But  that  honest  and  independent  man  could 
never  be  engaged  in  his  violent  measures,  though  he 
was,  in  reality,  much  farther  from  Origen's  sentiments 
than  Jerome  himself. 

Meanwhile  Rufinus  had  bidden  a  final  adieu  to  his 
friends  in  Palestine,  and  had  sailed,  in  company 
with  his  patroness,  for  his  native  Italy.  But,  before 
his  departure,  a  seeming  reconciliation  was  effected 
between  him  and  Jerome  ;  and  in  their  last  interview 
they  pledged  themselves  to  refrain  from  their  mutual 
hostilities.^ 

When  he  arrived  with  Melania  at  Eome,  intent  on 
diffusing  his  sentiments  and  partialities,  and  urged  by 
Macarius,  a  civil  officer  of  the  city,  he  translated  into 
Latin  the  first  book  of  Pamphilus's  and  Eusebius's 
Apology  for   Origen,  together  with  Origen's  famous 

1  Huet.  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  i.,  §  14. 

2  Hieron.,  Epist.  xlii.,  vel.  66,  ad  Rufinum,  p.  348. 


204  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

books  Of  Princijdes^  and  soon  published  them  for 
the  benefit  of  the  western  Christians.  To  these  works 
he  afiixed  Prefaces  and  a  Tract  of  his  own ;  in 
which  he  apprised  the  public  that,  in  the  books  Of 
Principles,  he  had  omitted  or  amended  the  many 
erroneous  representations  concerning  the  Trinity, 
which  he  supposed  had  been  inserted  or  corrupted  by 
the  heretics.  The  other  notions,  he  intimates,  were 
preserved  unaltered.^  Unhappily,  however,  he  could 
not  suppress  a  secret  personal  resentment,  but  em- 
braced this  opportunity  to  allude  to  a  certain  accom- 
plished brother,  who  had  ranked  Origen  next  to  the 
apostles,  and  whose  commendations  of  him  had 
excited  a  general  desire  to  obtain  his  works  ;  who 
had  already  published  in  Latin  a])ove  seventy  of  his 
Homilies,  and  who  had  promised  to  translate  still 
more.  This  brother  was,  of  course,  Jerome  ;  and  the 
allusion  was  intended  to  remind  the  few  of  his  incon- 
stancy, and  to  imply  to  the  rest  that  he  still  continued, 
as  he  once  had  been,  a  follower  of  Origen.  Nor 
did  Rufinus  stop  here  ;  his  smothered  enmity  broke 
out  in  a  remark,  that  there  were  authors  who,  having 
stolen  all  their  works  out  of  Origen,  afterwards  re- 
proached their  master,  in  order  to  conceal  their  own 
plagiarisms,  by  deterring  the  world  from  residing  the 
original.^  These  sly  insinuations,  though  veiled 
under  the  language  of  respect  and  esteem,  could  not 
escape  the  notice,  nor  elude  the  understanding,  of 
Jerome's  western  friends  ;  and  it  was  easily  foreseen 
that  the  reconciliation,  so  lately  confirmed  in  Pales- 

^  Rufini  Praefat.  in  lib.  Peri  Arclion,  inter  Origenis  0pp.,  lorn,  i.,  edit.  Delarue. 
2  Ditto,  and  Rufini,  lib.  De  Adulterat.  Origenis  Librorum. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  205 

tine,  must  soon  share  the  common  fate  of  attempts  at 
renewing  old  friendships  when  once  violated  with 
insult. 

The  books  Of  Principles,  though  they  contained, 
besides  Universalism,  the  doctrine  of  pre-existence 
and  other  novel  opinions,  were  readily 
received  by  many  at  Rome,  and  attached 
a  number  of  priests,  monks,  and  common  Christians  to 
Origen.^  Others,  however,  rose  in  opposition;  and 
Marcella,  a  lady  of  influence,  with  whom  Jerome 
maintained  a  correspondence,  appears  to  have  taken 
the  lead  in  fixing  the  stigma  of  heresy  on  the  gather- 
ing party  of  Origenists.  Assisted  by  Yincentius,  who 
had  returned  from  Bethlehem,  and  seconded  by  the 
numerous  and  powerful  friends  of  Jerome,  she  soon 
succeeded  in  rousing  and  directing  the  public  indig- 
nation.^ It  is  probable,  however,  that  even  Jerome's 
own  friends  did  not  consider  the  books  Of  Principles 
YQYj  heretical,  as  they  stood  in  the  translation ;  ^  and 
the  more  moderate  and  impartial  discovered  nothing 
alarming  in  the  late  publications,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  conduct  of  Pope  Siricius.  It  was  one  of  the 
last  acts  of  his  life  to  grant  letters  of  recommenda- 
tion to  Rufinus,  who  was  preparing  to  proceed,  after 
an  absence  of  twenty-five  years,  to  his  native  city  of 
Aquileia."^ 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xcvi.,  vel.  16  ad  Principium,  p.  782. 

2  Ditto. 

^  Jerome's  friends,  Fammachius  and  Oceanus  (Epist.  xl.,  vel.  64),  inter  Hiero- 
nymi  (Opp.,  torn,  iv.)  say  they  have  found  in  Rufinus's  translation  of  the  books  Of 
Principles,  many  things  not  so  very  orthodox;  still  they  suspect  that  Rufinus  had 
omitted  whatever  would  more  plainly  expose  Origen's  impiety;  and  therefore 
they  request  Jerome  to  send  them  a  correct  translation. 

*  Huet.  OrigeniiiU,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4.,  sect,  i.,  §  16. 


206  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Jerome  at  length  received,  with  siii-prise,  an  account 
sent  from  Italy,  of  the  artful  procedure 
of  Eufinus  ;  but,  with  a  moderation  un- 
usual for  him,  he  wrote  to  his  false  friend  in  terms  of 
manly  and  candid  expostulation,  entreating  him,  as  a 
brother,  to  offer  no  more  abuse,  and  to  regard  their 
parting  conciliation.^  As  he  was,  however,  accused 
of  inconsistency  in  his  treatment  of  Origen,  not  by 
Rufinus  alone,  but  by  many  others  at  Rome,  at 
Alexandria,  and  indeed  throughout  Christendom,  he 
composed  a  formal  explanation  of  the  praises  he  had 
formerly  bestowed  upon  that  father,  and  sent  it  to  his 
Roman  friends.  "I  have,  indeed,  commended  him," 
said  he,  "as  an  able  interpreter,  but  not  as  a  correct 
dogmatist;  I  have  admired  his  genius,  without  ap- 
proving his  doctrine.  Have  I  ever  adopted  his  detest- 
able representations  concerning  the  Trinity,  or  con- 
cerning the  resurrection  ?  Have  I  not,  on  the  contrary, 
carefully  omitted  them  in  my  translations  ?  If  people 
would  know  my  sentiments,  let  them  read  my  Com- 
mentaries  on  Ephesians,  and  on  Ecdesiastes,  where  I 
have  uniformly  contradicted  his  opinions.  I  certainly 
never  followed  his  notions ;  or  if  I  have,  yet  now  I 
repent.  And  let  others  imitate  this  my  example. 
Let  us  all  be  converted  to  God.  Let  us  not  wait  the 
repentance  of  the  devil ;  for  vain  is  the  presumption 
that  extends  into  the  abyss  of  hell.  It  is  in  this 
world  that  life  must  be  sought  or  lost."^  In  the 
conclusion,  he  exposed  the  absurdity  of  Ruiinus's 
pretence  that  Origen's  works  had  been  interpolated ; 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xlii. 

*  Hieron.,  Epist.  xli.,  vel.  65,  ad  Pammacb.  et  Oceanum,  p.  345. 


OF    UlsIVERSALISM.  207 

and  with  a  daring  assurance  denied  that  the  Apoloc/f/ 
for  Origen  was  written  by  Pamphihis.  At  the  same 
time,  he  also  sent  to  Rome,  at  the  request  of  his 
friends,  an  accurate  version  of  the  books  Of  Prin- 
ciples^ in  order,  as  he  said,  to  expose  the  mistransla- 
tions of  his  rival. ^ 

By  the  passage  just  quoted  from  his  Defence^  we 
discover  that  he  was  now^  disposed  to  deny  a  restorii- 
tion  from  hell,  Avhich  he  iiad  formerly  asserted.  Still 
it  appears  he  did  not  account  that  notion  one  of  the 
heinous,  alarming  errors  in  question,  as  is  manifest 
from  his  referring  to  his  Commentaries  on  Ephesians 
in  proof  that  he  had  uniformly  contradicted  them ; 
for  those  Commentanes,  though  they  opposed  some 
other  tenets  ascribed  to  Origen,  abounded,  as  we  have 
seen,  with  the  fullest  declarations  of  Universalism. 
What  he  now  treated  as  the  great,  detestable  errors  of 
his  master  may  be  learned  from  the  following  passage 
in  the  same  Defence:  "I  acknowledge  that  Origen 
erred  in  certain  things  ;  that  his  opinion  was  ^^Totig 
concerning  the  Son,  and  worse  concerning  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  that  he  impiously  supposed  that  our  souls 
fell  from  heaven ;  that  he  acknowledged  the  resur- 
rection only  in  words,  denying  it  in  reality;  and 
that  he  held  that  in  future  ages,  after  one  univer- 
sal restitution,  Gabriel  would  at  length  become 
what  the  devil  now  is,  Paul  what  Caiaphas,  and 
virgins  what  prostitutes   are.^     When  you   hav-e    re- 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xli..  vel.  65  ad  Pammach.  et  Occanum,  p.  348. 

2  "  —  et  post  multa  ssecula  atque  unam  omnium  restitutionem.  idipsum  fore  Gabri- 
elem  quod  Diabohim.  Paulum  quod  Caiapham.  %irgine3  quod  prostibulas."  In  his 
Epist.  xxxvi.  ad  Vigilantium.  written  about  this  time,  Jerome  acknowledges  that 
Origen  ••  erred  concerning  the  state  of  the  soul  [that  is,  pre-existence],  and  the 


208  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

jected     these     errors,     you     may     read     him    with 
safety.^ 

Jerome  and  Epiphanius  now  began  to  discover,  in 
the  disposition  of  the  Alexandrian  bishop,  a  favora- 
ble change,  which  they  had  long  sought  to  procure. 
Flattery  and  exhortation  had  been  spent  upon  him  in 
vain  ;  he  had  still  inclined  to  the  side  of  John.  But, 
what  no  persuasion  could  effect,  self-interest  and  re- 
venge speedily  accomplished.  Theophilus  had  been, 
for  some  time,  involved  in  a  contention  with  his 
Egyptian  monks,  the  smaller,  more  ignorant,  and 
therefore  the  more  turbulent  part  of  whom,  hated  the 
name  of  Origen,  because  his  doctrine  was  so  directly 
opposed  to  their  own  gross  notion  that  the  Deity 
possessed  a  body  like  man's. ^  These  Anthropomor- 
phites,  so  called,  were  roused  to  open  insurrection  by 
one  of  their  bishop's  late  addresses,  in  which  he  had 
freely  reproached  their  error ;  and,  assembling  from 
vai'ious  parts  of  Egypt,  they  crowded  to  Alexandria 
with  the  intention  of  murdering  him.  To  save  his 
life,  Theophilus  deceived  the  fierce  assailants  into  a 
persuasion  that  he  himself  was  converted  to  their 
belief;  and  promising,  at  their  instance,  to  condemn 
the  works  of  their  great  adversary,  Origen,  he  dis- 
missed them  in  peace.     Meanwhile,  the  aged  Isido- 


repentance  of  the  devil ;  and  what  is  of  more  importance  than  these,  that  the  Hon 
of  God  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  pronounced,  in  his  Commentaries  on  Isaiah,  to  be 
Seraphim."  p.  276.  Afterwards.  Jerome  reproaches  Vigilantius  for  having  mis- 
interpreted the  vision  of  the  mountain,  in  Daniel  ii.,  and  insultingly  tells  him  to 
repent  "if,  indeed,  this  impiety  can  be  forgiven  you;  and  then  you  may  obtain 
pardon  when,  according  to  the  error  of  Origen,  the  devil  shall  obtain  it;  who  was 
never  guilty  of  yvorse  blasphemy  than  yours."    p.  278. 

1  Hieron.,  Epist.  xli.  p.  345. 

2  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  7. 


OF   UNIVERSALTSM.  209 

rus,  whom  he  had  always  honored,  and  whom  he  had 
lately  attempted  to  place  in  the  vacant  bishopric  of 
Constantinople,  had  incurred  his  dangerous  displeas- 
ure, by  refusing  to  countenance  his  unjust  and  rapa- 
cious schemes.  Some  of  the  Origenist  monks  of 
Nitria,  also,  where  Isidorus  sought  and  obtained 
refuge,  fell  under  his  resentment.  Theophilus  in- 
vaded their  quiet  retreat,  seized  and  tortured  those 
who  refused  to  deliver  up  Isidorus,  burnt  their  monas- 
teries, and,  bethinking  himself  of  an  easier  way  to 
satiate  his  baffled  vengeance,  denounced  them  to  the 
fierce  Anthropomorphites  as  Origenists.  Sacrificing 
everything  to  his  wrath,  he  now  determined  to  fulfil 
his  late  extorted  promise  ;  and,  siding  with  the  more 
dilatory  Jerome  and  Epiphanius,  he  proceeded  to  the 
hazardous  measure  of  engaging  the  church  in  his 
quarrel.  Accordingly,  he  called  a  synod  of 
the  neighboring  bishops  at  Alexandria,  and 
procured  a  decree,  remarkable  for  being  the  first  of 
its  kind,  condemning  Origen,  and  anathematizing  all 
who  should  approve  his  works.  He  dared  not  arraign 
the  whole  multitude  of  ofienders  ;  but  three  of  them, 
called  the  tall  brethren,  were  condemned  by  name,  un- 
der the  pretence  of  their  holding  false  doctrines, 
though  neither  they  nor  any  of  their  party  were  pres- 
ent. Theophilus  then  contrived  to  obtain,  from  the 
Governor  of  Egypt,  authority  to  drive  the  excommuni- 
cated out  of  the  province  ;  and,  taking  a  band  of  sol- 
diers, marched  again  for  the  famous  retreat  of  the 
Origemsts.^ 

1  In  the  account  of  Theophilus,  I  follow  Huet  (Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  ii., 
§§  1,  2,  3),  and  Fleury  (Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxi.,  chap.  10, 12). 


210  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

The  cells  and  monasteries  of  Nitria  clustered  along 
two  parallel  but  distant  chains  of  naked  hills,  and 
were  thinly  scattered,  perhaps,  in  the  deep  and  arid 
waste  that  laj  between.  From  the  summits  of  the 
north-eastern  ridge  the  spectator  surveyed,  with  se- 
cret horror,  an  inanimate  world  of  eternal  barrenness 
and  solitude  glowing  beneath  the  scorching  firmament. 
In  whatever  direction  he  turned,  the  great  Desert  of 
Libya  stretched  away,  over  uneven  plains  and  preci- 
pices, to  the  verge  of  the  horizon.  To  the  south- 
west, at  the  distance  of  ten  or  a  dozen  miles,  stood 
the  opposite  ridge  ;  nearer  lay  before  him  the  wide 
valley  of  sand,  furrowed  through  with  deep  gorges, 
and  extending  far  ofi"  to  the  north-west  and  south-east ; 
and  below  him,  at  the  foot  of  the  precipices  on  which 
he  stood,  his  eyes  rested  on  the  small  crusted  lakes 
of  natron,  surrounded  by  shrul^s  and  reeds,  the  only 
contrast  to  the  universal  desolation. ^  All  was  mo- 
tionless silence  ;  except  when  the  beasts  and  birds 
of  the  desert  came  to  allay  their  burning  thirst,  or 
when  the  monks  swarmed  forth  from  their  cells  at  the 
appointed  hours  of  social  devotion. 

Into  this  abode  of  mortification  and  religious  mus- 
ing, Theophilus  entered,  with  his  troop,  in  the  dead 
of  night,  and  drove  away  the  bishop  of  the  mountain ; 
but  unable  to  discover  his  intended  victims,  who 
had  been  secreted,  he  burnt  their  cells,  pillaged  the 
monasteries,  and  then  set  out  on  his  retreat.  Re- 
turned to  Alexandria,  he  encountered  a  general  indig- 
nation and  horror,  which  the  news  of  his  cruelty  and 
sacrilege  soon  roused.     The  Origenists,  however,  took 

1  Sonniiii's  Travels  in  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  chap.  27,  28,  29. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  211 

warning,  and  fled  to  other  countries.  Isidorus  and 
about  three  hundred  of  his  brethren  sought  the  pro- 
tection of  John,  in  Palestine,  and  retired,  the  larger 
part  of  them,  to  the  palm-groves  around  Scj^thopolis, 
nearly  seventy  miles  northward  from  Jerusalem.  But 
Theophilus,  with  the  exterminating  zeal  of  a  true  foe, 
wi'ote  immediately  to  the  bishops  of  that  province, 
forgiving,  on  the  ground  of  ignorance,  their  first 
reception  of  the  condemned,  but  requiring  them,  for 
the  future,  to  exclude  the  refugees  from  every 
church.  It  is  mortifying  to  relate,  that  John  of 
Jerusalem  was  overcome  by  this  sudden  change  in  the 
powerful  patron  to  whom  he  had  referred  his  cause ; 
and  that  he  appears  to  have  wanted  the  resolution  to 
defend  his  guests,  and  the  courage  to  disobey  the 
Egyptian  primate's  orders.^ 

Great  were  the  mutual  congratulations  of  Theophi- 
lus, Epiphanius,  and  Jerome,  on  these  decisive  meas- 
ures. They  informed  each  other,  in  their  bombastic 
letters,  that  the  snake  of  Origenism  was  now  severed 
and  disembowelled  by  the  evangelical  sword ;  that  the 
host  of  Amalek  was  destroyed,  and  the  banner  of  the 
cross  erected  on  the  altars  of  the  Alexandrian  church. 
Theophilus  sent  letters  to  Rome,  to  Cyprus,  and  to 
Constantinople,  proclaiming  his  late  measures,  and 
exhorting  the  respective  bishops  to  follow  his  ex- 
ample. Accordingly,  Anastasius,  the  new  Pope,  who 
had    succeeded    Siricius    at    Rome,    readiiy 

.  *^  A.  D.  400. 

gratified  the  numerous  partisans  ot  Jerome 

in  that  city,  by  issuing  a  decree  which  was  received 

iHuetii  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  ii.,  §3;  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxl., 
chap.  12. 


212  THE    AXCIEXT    HISTORY 

through  all  the  West,  condemning  the  works  of 
Origen ;  and  Epiphanius,  soon  afterwards,  convened 
a  sjaiod  of  his  bishops  in  Cyprus,  and  procured  from 
them  a  like  sentence.  But  Chrysostom,  w^ho  now 
held  the  episcopal  chair  of  Constantinople,  delayed 
all  notice  of  the  Egyptian  prelate's  recommendation,^ 
and  thereby  involved  himself  in  a  scene  of  troubles 
that  closed  only  with  his  life. 

We  have  passed,  with  barely  a  hasty  notice,  over 
the  decree  of  the  Roman  pontifi',  and  the  two  synods 
of  Alexandria  and  Cyprus,  against  Origen  and  his 
works.  They  constitute,  however,  an  important 
event  in  the  history  of  Universalism,  being  the  first 
public  acts  of  the  church  w^hich  at  all  affected  that 
sentiment ;  and  it  is  worth  the  while  to  pause  and 
ascertain  the  particular  points  of  doctrine  which  were 
then  condemned.  All  the  formal  records  of  those 
proceedings  have  long  since  perished ;  but,  from 
cotemporary  authority,  we  learn  that  the  tenet  which 
gave  most  offence  in  the  Alexandrian  synod  was  this  : 
"That  as  Christ  was  crucified  in  our  w^orld  for  the 
redemption  of  mankind,  so  he  would  taste  death,  in 
the  eternal  state,  for  the  salvation  of  the  devil."  * 
This  two-fold  death  of  Christ,  though  sometimes 
intimated  by  Origen,  was  by  no  means  one  of  his 
fixed  opinions  ;  and  it  can  have  been  only  from  an 
ungenerous  zeal  to  take  the  utmost  advantage  of 
his  suggestions,  that  it  was  inserted  in  the  present 
charge.      It   also   appears,  that   in   addition   to   this 


1  Huet.  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  ii.,  §  5,  et  sect,  i.,  §  19. 

2  Sulpitii  Severi,  Dialog,  i.,  cap.  3.    I  quote  from  Gr.  BuUi  Defens.  Fid.  Nicsenae, 
cap.  ix.,  §  23. 


OF    UXIVERSALISM.  213 

particular  his  doctrine  of "  the  salvation  of  the  devil 
and  his  angels  "  was  expressly  condemned,  in  some  of 
these  public  decrees,  either  at  Alexandria,  Cyprus,  or 
Rome ;  and  likewise  another  notion,  which  cannot, 
with  so  much  justice,  be  ascribed  to  him,  "  that  in  the 
distant  ages  of  eternity,  the  blessed  in  heaven  will,  by 
degrees,  relapse  into  sin,  and  descend  into  the  regions 
of  woe,  w^hile,  on  the  other  hand,  the  damned  will 
rise  to  the  mansions  of  purity  and  joy ;  thus  constitut- 
ing, by  perpetual  revolutions,  a  ceaseless  alternation 
of  happiness  and  misery."^  These,  we  are  informed, 
were  the  principal  errors  now  condemned ;  and  they 
were  probably  alleged  to  justify  the  sentence  which 
was  passed,  forbidding  his  Avorks  to  be  read,  and 
placing  him  on  the  list  of  heretics.  But,  what  is 
remarkable,  it  is  certain  that  his  doctrine  of  the  sal- 
vation  of  all  mankind  was  not  condemned,  and  that 
some  of  the  orthodox  continued  to  avow  it  with  im- 
punity.^ 

The  prohibition  of  his  writings,  and  the  angry 
indignity  with  which  his  name  was  treated,  were 
regarded  by  the  more  dispassionate,  throughout  all 
Christendom,  as  unnecessarily  severe ;  but,  as  the 
authoritative  acts  had  been  regularly  passed,  the  or- 
thodox generally  acquiesced,  though  with  reluctance, 
reserve,  and  some  exceptions.^ 

1  Augustinus  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  17. 

2  Augustine  (De  Civitate  Dei,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  17),  about  twenty  years  after-wards, 
reasons  with  those  merciful  brethren  among  the  orthodox  who  held  the  salvation 
of  all  mankind.  He  says  they  urged  the  superior  benevolence  of  their  doctrine  as 
a  proof  of  its  truth ;  and  he  exposes  their  inconsistency  in  using  this  argument, 
by  daring  them  to  extend  it.  like  Origen,  to  the  salvation  of  the  devil  and  his  an- 
gels. For  this,  adds  he,  the  church  has  condemned  him;  and  they,  of  course, 
dare  not  go  to  the  same  extremity. 

3  Huet.  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4.  sect,  ii.,  §§  4,  12.    Chrysostom,  Augustine, 


214  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

When  the  persecuted  Origenists  who  had  fled  to 
Palestine  from  the  rage  of  Theophilus, 
learned  that  he  had  sent  a  deputation 
against  them  to  Constantinople,  they  likewise  pro- 
ceeded thither  to  defend  themselves,  and  to  seek  an 
asylum  under  the  strong  protection  of  the  bishop  of 
that  city,  the  celebrated  Chrysostom.  Fifty  aged 
men,  among  whom  were  Isidorus  and  the  three  tall 
brethren^  came  and  presented  themselves  before  him ; 
and  such  was  the  wretchedness  of  their  appearance 
that  Chrysostom,  it  is  said,  melted  into  tears  at  the 
sight.  He  gave  them  the  desired  protection,  till  their 
cause  should  be  heard ;  and  wrote  immediately  to 
Theophilus  in  their  behalf.  But  his  interference  was 
haughtily  resented,  and  drew  upon  him  a  long  and 
fierce  persecution,  the  particulars  of  which  have  no 
direct  relation  to  the  subject  of  this  history.  We 
may  only  mention,  that  the  Origenists,  having 
formally  disavowed  all  heretical  doctrines,  continued 
to  enjoy  his  countenance,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Empress  Eudoxia ;  and  were  thus  emboldened  to 
accuse  their  bishop  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
Emperor  Arcadius.  Upon  this,  Epiphanius  hastened 
from  Cyprus  to  Constantinople ;  and,  awhile  after- 
wards, the  undaunted  Theophilus  arrived,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  imperial  summons,  attended,  however, 
by  a  host  of  bishops  from  Egypt.  Their  vengeance 
was  directed  not  so  much  against  the  Origenists  as 
against  Chrysostom.  That  ready  engine  of  mischief, 
a  synod,  was  formed ;  but  when  the  members  were 

Bulpitius  Severus,  Vincentius  Lirinensiii,  etc.,  were  favorably  disposed  towards 
the  memory,  though  not  the  doctrine  of  Origen. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  215 

gathered,  they  immediately  separated  in  two  bodies, 
and  met  in  different  places ;  those  who  hated  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople,  in  the  suburbs ;  and  those 
who  favored  him,  in  the  city.  Among  his  friends, 
Palladius  of  Galatia,  now  Bishop  of  Helenopolis  in 
Bithynia,  seems  to  have  taken  a  distinguished  part ; 
and  could  a  majority  have  availed  against  intrigue  and 
power,  Chrysostom  had  triumphed.  But  he  sunk,  at 
length,  with  all  his  influence,  under  the  combined 
assaults  of  the  Alexandi'ian  party,  the  rage  of  the 
insulted  Empress  Eudoxia,  and  the  obsequious  edicts 
of  the  timid  Arcadius ;  and  in  the  year  403  he  was 
wickedly  deposed  and  banished,  together  with  some 
of  his  adherents.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  the  relent- 
ing Epiphanius  had  died  on  his  voyage  back  to 
Cyprus ;  and  Isidorus  and  the  three  tall  brethren  had 
closed  their  lives,  in  the  city,  amidst  the  cruel  storm 
which  their  great  and  injured  patron  had  brought 
upon  himself.  The  objects  of  his  hatred  being  thus  re- 
moved, Theophilus  was  easily  reconciled  to  the  rest  of 
the  Origenists,  and  finally  received  them  into  his  favor. ^ 
The  Alexandrian  bishop  had  not  confined  his  exer- 
tions, all  this  time,  to  the  city  of  Con- 

^       ^-  1  ^xn,-!       1  •  i-  A.  D.  401  to  404. 

stantmople.  While  his  party  was  man- 
aging his  contest  there,  he  himself  was  often  engaged 
at  home,  rousing  the  indignation  of  the  Egyptian 
Christians  against  Origen's  name  and  doctrine.  It  was 
his  practice  to  publish,  annually,  a  General  or  Paschal 
Upistle  to  his  churches  ;  and  in  that  of  the  year  401, 
his  newly  adopted  zeal  gave  itself  full  utterance.     He 

1  Huetii  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  ii.,  §§  11, 12, 13,  andFleury's  Eccl.  Hist., 
book  xxi.,  chap.  23 — 32. 


216  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

inveighed  with  much  bitterness  against  Origen's  here- 
sies, which  he  comprised  in  the  following  particulars  : 
that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  would  finally  end,  and  the 
devil  return  to  his  pristine  glory,  and  become  subject 
to  the  Father;  that  the  blessed  in  heaven  may  fall 
away ;  that  Christ  is  to  be  crucified^  in  the  invisible 
world  for  the  demons  and  wicked  angels ;  that  the 
bodies  of  the  saints,  after  the  resurrection,  will  at 
length  decay  and  become  extinct ;  that  the  Son  is  not 
to  be  addressed  in  prayer ;  that  magic  is  not  sinful ; 
and  that  marriage  is  dishonorable,  being  occasioned 
by  our  guilty  connection  with  the  body.^ 

In  the  next  year's  Epistle,  Theophilus  resumed  the 
unfinished  topic,  and  entered  again  upon  his  conflict 
with  the  "  Hydra  of  Origenism."  The  errors  he  now 
selected  as  the  points  of  his  attack  were,  that  human 
souls  pre-existed,  but  for  their  transgressions  were 
doomed  to  this  world,  which  was  formed  for  their 
reception;  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  ani- 
mated ;  that  our  fleshly  bodies  are  not  to  rise ;  that 
the  dignitaries  of  the  angelic  world  were  not  created 
such,  but  rose  from  the  original  equality  of  souls  to 
their  present  elevations  by  means  of  their  own  self- 
improvement  ;  that  the  Holy  Ghost  does  not  operate 
on  irrational  animals  ;  that  the  immediate  providence 
of  God  extends  only  to  things  in  heaven ;  that  Christ 
is  not  the  supreme  God ;  that  all  souls  came  from  one 
common  and  uniform  mass  of  mind ;  that  the  soul 
which  Christ  assumed  was  one  with  his  divine  nature, 
just  as  he  is  one  with  the  Father ;  and  that  God  could 

1  Theophili  Paschal,  lib.  ii.  (properly  i.)  inter  Hicronymi  0pp.,  torn,  iv.,  part 
ii.    For  the  date  and  order  of  these  books,  see  Du  Pin,  Cave,  Fleury,  etc. 


OF    UNIVEKSALISM.  217 

govern  no  more  creatures  than  he  has  made,  so  that 
his  power  is  finite,^  We  have  another  of  his  annual 
Epistles^  written  in  the  year  404.  Here,  his  zeal  had 
begun  to  abate ;  but  amidst  a  chaos  of  general  and 
indefinite  exhortation,  tliere  are  some  incidental  at- 
tacks upon  Origen's  notion  of  the  condemnation  of 
souls  to  earthly  bodies.^ 

These  three  Epistles  were  afterwards  translated  by 
Jerome,  for  the  use  of  the  Latin  Christians ;  and  with 
them  several  others,  which  have  since  perished. 

While  thus  Theophilus  was  pursuing  his  quarrel  in 
Constantinople,    and   at   the  same    time 

,  ,  .  .  A.  D.  400  to  404. 

soundmg  the  alarm  m  Lgypt,  against  the 
newly  denominated  heresy,  the  storm  which  had  arisen 
in  Italy  continued  without  abatement.  Soon  after  the 
passing  of  the  decree,  in  a.  d.  400,  against  Origen's 
works.  Pope  Anastasius  cited  Rufinus  to  appear  be- 
fore him,  on  a  charge  of  heresy.  But  the  latter, 
instead  of  leaving  his  friends  at  Aquileia,  sent  to  the 
pontifi*  a  formal  Apology,  or  statement  of  his  faith 
and  conduct ;  professing  his  hearty  assent  to  the  creeds 
of  the  churches  at  Rome,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  and 
Aquileia ;  and  declaring  his  belief  in  the  Trinity,  in 
the  resurrection  of  this  very  flesh,  in  a  future  judg- 
ment, and  in  the  endless  punishment  of  the  devil,  of 
all  his  angels,  and  of  wicked  men,  pariicidarli/,  says 
he,  of  those  who  slander  their  brethren.  And  who- 
ever denies  this,  "  let  eternal  fire  be  his  portion,  that 
he  may  feel  what  he  denies."^     The  same  doctrine  he 


1  Theophili  Paschal,  lib.  i.  (properly  ii.). 

2  Theophili  Paschal,  lib.  iii. 

'  Rufini  ad  Anastasium  Apologia,  inter  Hieron.  Opp.,  torn,  v.,  p.  259. 


218  THE    ANCIENT    HISTORY 

also  asserted  in  general  terms,  but  with  much  explicit- 
ness,  in  his  Treatise  on  the  Apostles'  Creed  ;^  and  we 
have,  no  reason  to  doubt  his  sincerity.  The  Italian 
bishops,  it  seems,  were  generally  satisfied;^  but 
Anastasius,  either  suspecting  dissimulation,  or  deter- 
mined at  all  events  to  crush  the  obnoxious  translator, 
passed  upon  him  the  dread  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion. This  was  in  a.  d.  401.  The  Pope  afterwards 
refused,  peremptorily,  to  restore  him  to  fellowship, 
notwithstanding  a  friendly  remonstrance  that  he  re- 
ceived the  next  year,  with  much  seeming  respect,  from 
John  of  Jerusalem.^ 

During  all  these  transactions,  Rufinus  w^as  solacing 
himself  with  secret  revenge,  by  circulating  in  private 
a  work  which  he  had  composed  to  defend  his  own 
conduct,  to  excuse  Origen,  but  especially  to  expose 
Jerome.  To  this  production  the  partial  resentment  of 
the  church  has  since  affixed  the  hostile  name  of  Invec- 
tive, instead  of  the  original  and  more  peaceful  title  of 
Apology.  Paulinianus,  then  residing  in  Italy,  con- 
trived to  obtain  sight  of  it ;  and,  having  secretly  tran- 
scribed copious  extracts,  sent  them  to  his  brother  at 
Bethlehem.  From  these,  Jerome  had  the  vexation  to 
discover  that  the  Defence  he  had  addressed,  a  few 
years  before,  to  his  friends  at  Eome,  was  likely  to  be 
turned  back,  with  effect,  against  himself.  He  saw 
that  Eufinus  had  succeeded  in  exposing  much  incon- 
sistency, and  some  prevarication,  in  the  explanations 
there  given  concerning  his  former  and  present  treat- 

1  Rufini  Symbolum,  inter  Hieron.  Opp.,  torn,  v.,  pp.  127—150.    N.  B.  See  note 
1,  page  176. 

2  Hieron.  Apol.  adv.  Rufin.,  lib.  iii.,  p.  453. 

3  Huetii  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  i.,  §  20. 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  219 

ment  of  Origen,  But,  what  was  more  perplexing,  a 
fatal  advantage  had  been  taken  of  his  favorite  Com- 
mentaries on  Ephesians  and  Ecdesiastes.  From  these 
very  works,  to  which  Jerome  had  expressly  referred 
as  a  clear  delineation  of  his  views,  Eufinus  had  now 
selected  ample  quotations  that  taught,  in  the  fullest 
manner,  the  several  doctrines  of  the  resurrection  of 
aerial  instead  of  fleshly  bodies,  pre-existence,  and 
the  universal  restoration,  not  only  of  mankind,  ])ut 
also  of  the  devil  and  his  angels.  Particular  expres- 
sions had,  moreover,  been  pointed  out,  which  seemed 
to  intimate  a  peipetual  rotation  of  happiness  and  mis- 
ery, the  eventual  return  of  all  intellectual  creatures 
into  one  order  or  grade  of  being,  and  the  animation 
of  those  glorious  bodies,  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  stars. 
"It  is  well,"  said  his  exulting  accuser,  "for  such  as 
you  to  condemn  Origen."  ^ 

Disturbed,  but  not  dismayed,  by  this  unexpected 
attack,  Jerome  sat  down  angrily  to  the  composition 
of  his  Apology  against  Rufinus;  replying  haughtily, 
and  sometimes  disingenuously,  to  the  numerous 
charges  against  his  conduct,  recriminating  on  his  an- 
tagonist for  the  same  acts  which  he  excused  in  him- 
self, and  attempting,  by  the  most  groundless  insinua- 
tions, to  render  him  suspected  of  evasion  in  his  late 
Apology  to  Anastasius.  We  have  little  concern, 
however,  except  with  what  relates  to  Universalism. 
To  extricate  himself  from  the  awkward  predicament 
in  which  he  was  placed  by  the  unfortunate  reference 


1  Hieron.  Apolog.  adv.  Rufinum,  lib.  i.  and  ii.,  torn.  iv.  Jerome  had  not  yet 
seen  Rufinus's  Invective  entire,  but  only  the  extracts  which  Pauliniauus  had  sent 
him.    What  these  were  we  can  learu  only  by  Jerome's  answer. 


220  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

to  his  Commentaries  on  Ejphesians  and  Ecclesiastes, 
he  resorted  to  the  desperate  plea,  that  as  the  passages 
containing  the  doctrines  of  an  aerial  resurrection  pre- 
existence,  and  universal  restoration  were  abridged  by 
him  from  Origen  and  other  authors,  he  was  not 
responsible  for  the  sentiments.  The  truth  was,  he 
had  incorporated  them  into  his  own  work,  without  a 
mark  of  censure,  and  without  giving  the  original  writ- 
ers as  his  authority.^ 

That  he  would  now  be  understood  to  deny  the  sal- 
vation of  the  devil  and  of  the  damned,  is  certain;  and 
he  even  complained  that  upon  this,  as  well  as  on  other 
points,  Rufinus  had  not  been  sufficiently  explicit  in  his 
Apology  to  the  Roman  pontiff.^  But  it  is  remarkable 
that  he  still  avoided  reckoning  it  among  the  imjportant 
errors  of  Origen,  and  that  he  invariably  passed  it 
over,  w;hen  he  referred  to  them ;  as  in  the  following 
catalogue:  "I  point  out  to  you,  in  Origen's  works," 
said  he  to  Rufinus,  "many  evil  things,  and  particu- 
larly these  heresies  :  that  the  Son  and  Holy  Spirit 
are  subordinate ;  that  there  are  innumerable  worlds 
succeeding  each  other  to  all  eternity ;  that  angels 
were  changed  into  human  souls  ;  that  Christ's  human 
soul  existed  before  it  was  born  of  Mary ;  and  that  it 
was  this  which  thought  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with 
God,  seeing  it  was  in  the  form  of  God,  yet  humbled 
itself,  and  took  the  form  of  a  servant ;  that  in  the 
resurrection  our  bodies  will  be  aerial,  without  mem- 
bers, and  that  they  will  eventually  vanish  into  noth- 
ing ;    that  in  the  universal   restitution,  the    celestial 

1  Hieron.  Apolog.  adv.  Rufinum,  lib.  i.  and  ii.,  torn.  iv. 

2  Ditto,  lib.  ii.,  p.  393. 


OF  UNIVEKSALISM.  221 

powers  and  the  infernal  spirits,  together  with  the  souls 
of  all  mankind,  will  be  reduced  into  one  order  or  rank 
of  beings  ;  and  that  from  this  uniform  state  of  equality 
they  will  again  diverge,  as  formerly,  holding  various 
courses,  until  at  length  some,  falling  into  sin,  shall  be 
born  once  more  into  a  mortal  world  with  human  bod- 
ies. So  that  we,  who  are  now  men,  may  fear  here- 
after to  be  women  ;  and  they  who  are  now  virgins,  to 
be,  then,  prostitutes.  These  heresies  I  point  out  in 
Origen's  works  ;  do  you  now  show  me  in  what  work 
of  his  you  can  find  the  contrary."  ^ 

This  Apology^  abounding  in  ridicule  and  sarcasm, 
was  finished  in  two  books  and  sent  to  Italy  some 
time  in  the  year  403,^  while  Eufinus  was  still  flatter- 
ing himself  that  the  secret  of  his  performance  had  not 
transpired.  Stung  into  madness  by  the  lampoons,  the 
insults,  and  the  misrepresentations  of  his  opponent, 
Eufinus  immediately  sent  to  Bethlehem  the  whole  of 
his  Invective,  accompanied  with  a  letter  threatenyig 
prosecution,  and  perhaps  death.  Upon  this,  Jerome 
added  to  his  Apology  a  third  book,  written  in  a  style 
which  showed  that  he  would  not  be  outdone  in  rage 
nor  in  vulgar  abuse.  Though  too  much  engrossed 
by  other  matters  to  pay  particular  attention  to  the  old 
topic  of  Origen's  errors,  he  nevertheless  repeated  his 
attacks  on  the  notion,  that  all  rational  creatures  will 
eventually  return  to  one  common  grade  of  being,  and* 


1  Hieron.  Apolog.  adv.  Ruflnum,  lib.  ii.,  p.  403.  See  also  lib.  i.,  pp.  355,  371, 
and  lib.  ii.  p.  407,  and  lib.  iii.,  p.  441. 

2  Huet,  T)u  Pin,  etc.,  say  in  A.  D.  402;  but  as  Jerome  mentions  Anastasius's 
Letter  to  John  of  Jerusalem  (lib.  ii.,  p.  405),  which  could  not  have  reached  Pal- 
estine before  the  close  of  the  year  402,  or  beginning  of  403, 1  have  given  Jerome's 
Apology  the  later  date. 


222  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

that  they  may  afterwards  relapse,  and  renew  their 
present  diversity.^  It  is  remarkable  that  he  seemed 
almost  to  concede,  notwithstanding  his  perverse  tem- 
per, that  he  had  once  followed  Origen  too  far.^ 

With  this  hot  altercation,  and  with  the  simultane- 
ous triumph  of  Theophilus,  subsided,  for  the 
present,  the  public  contest  in  the  church  con- 
cerning Origenism.  Its  professors  were  everywhere 
obliged  to  conceal  their  belief ; ..  and  their  doctrine  was 
generally  regarded  as  heretical,  at  least  as  dangerous 
to  the  peace  of  Christendom.  Some  of  its  particu- 
lars, however,  were  still  avowed  without  censure, 
when  no  partiality  toAvards  the  sect  was  suspected. 
But  Universalism,  having  been  condemned  in  one  of 
its  points,  received  a  check  from  which  it  never  en- 
tirely recovered  in  the  Catholic  church. 

AYe  may  pronounce  it  probable  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  salvation  of  the  devil  and  his  angels  would,  for 
this  time,  have  escaped  condemnation  and  perhaps 
reproach,  had  it  not  been  found  in  company  with 
other  offensive  tenets.  As  to  the  general  character 
of  the  violent  proceedings  now  described,  it  is  too 
manifest  that  they  deserve  the  brand  of  personal 
quarrels,  rather  than  the  honorable  appellation  of  a 
contest  for  the  truth.  Of  the  three  chief  agents, 
Epiphanius,  an  honest  but  credulous  and  bigoted  man, 
may  indeed  be  supposed  to  have  acted,  in  a  great 
measure,  from  principle,  as  he  had  long  been  dis- 
tinguished for  zeal  against  Origenism.  But  Theophi- 
lus engaged  in  the  quarrel  through  policy  and  grudge, 

1  Apolog.,  lib.  iii.,  p.  441. 

2  Ditto,  pp.  445,  447. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  223 

and  prosecuted  it  for  private  revenge  ;  and  we  must 
pass  nearly  the  same  judgment  on  the  motives  of 
Jerome.  Both  had  formerly  been  admirers  of  Origen ; 
and  both,  after  the  strife  was  past,  betrayed  again, 
though  with  caution,  their  partiality  for  his  works. 


224  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

FROM  A.    D.   404   TO   A.   D.   500. 

After  two  or  three  centuries  of  decay,  the  unwieldy 
mass  of  the  Roman  Empire  had  now  fallen 

A.  D.  405.       .  '■ 

into  two  parts,  by  a  permanent  separation 
of  the  East  from  the  West.  Over  these  divisions,  the 
innocent  but  effeminate  sons  of  Theodosius  the  Great 
enjoyed  the  name  of  sovereignty,  while  their  feeble 
hands,  unable  to  sway  the  sceptre,  resigned  to  their 
favorites  and  ministers  the  actual  exercise  of  authority. 
Arcadius,  the  eastern  emperor,  sat  on  his  father's 
throne  in  Constantinople ;  his  younger  brother,  Hono- 
rius,  held  the  western  court  at  Ravenna  in  Italy. 
Rome,  the  eternal  city,  the  boasted  mistress  of  the 
world,  was  no  longer  honored  with  the  empty  compli- 
ment of  the  imperial  residence.  Patriotism,  courage, 
and  even  bodily  strength  had,  to  a  great  degree,  for- 
saken a  people  dispirited  by  ages  of  despotism, 
corrupted  by  its  vices,  and  enervated  by  luxury  and 
sloth.  Throughout  the  East  internal  disorders 
agitated  the  public  tranquillity,  and  open  rebellion 
alarmed  the  feeble  administration.  In  the  West 
all  hearts  were  trembling  at  the  portentous  move- 
ments of  the  fierce  barbarians  of  the  North,  who 
hovered  on  the  frontiers  of  Greece  and  Italy,  and 
threatened,  not  in  vain,  to  pour  their  forces  over  the 


OF   UNIVEESALISM.  223 

beautiful  teiTitories  into  the  ancient  seat  of  empire. 
Already  had  they  made  an  alarming  incursion,  from 
which  they  were  turned  back  partly  by  force  of  arms, 
and  partly  by  gold  ;  and  they  waited  but  the  prepara- 
tion of  four  or  five  years  for  their  more  successful 
return,  when  Eome  itself  was  to  be  taken  and  sacked 
by  Alaric  at  the  head  of  his  Goths. 

In  this  period  of  terror  and  disorder,  the  church 
sympathized,  of  course,  in  the  perils  and  fears  of  the 
state,  with  which  she  was  so  intimately  connected ; 
but  her  worldly  power  naturally  increased  in  propor- 
tion as  the  civil  establishment  grew  weaker  and  more 
in  need  of  her  assistance.  The  public  dangers  never 
made  her,  for  a  moment,  lose  sight  of  the  favorite 
object  of  ambition,  towards  which  she  advanced  with 
the  slow  but  fatal  steadiness  of  the  laws  of  nature. 
Nor  did  she  withdraw  her  attention  from  her  more 
domestic  concerns.  Among  other  employments,  her 
clergy  now  found  a  gi-ateful  exercise  for  their  zeal  and 
violence  in  the  overthrow  of  the  last  monuments  of 
heathenism,  and  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellious 
sects  among  themselves.  The  afiair  of  the  Origenists 
had  been,  to  all  appearance,  successfully  despatched ; 
but  in  Africa  a  very  numerous  and  troublesome  party 
of  orthodox  believers,  the  Donatists,  stood  out,  with 
peculiar  obstinacy,  against  all  the  invitations  and  all 
the  threatenings  of  the  church.  In  the  course  of 
three  years  as  many  councils  had  assembled  at  Car- 
thage, under  the  influence  of  the  celebrated  Augustine, 
with  the  design  of  compelling  them  to  return  to  the 
Catholic  communion,  from  which  they  had  separated, 
in  an  electioneering  quarrel,  nearly  a  century  before. 


226  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

But  these  measures,  though  seconded  by  the  severe 
edicts  of  Honorius,  had  little  success  ;  the  schismatics, 
for  the  most  part,  remained  stubborn,  and  their 
savage  partisans  continued  to  carry  sword  and  fire 
through  the  province. 

The   political    commotions   and    ecclesiastical   dis- 
turbances   of   the    time    operated,    un- 

A.  D.  405  to  412.  _        ,  ,      -,,         ,        ,.  ,    ,,  T  ,. 

doubtedly,  to  divert  tlie  public  attention 
from  the  subject  of  Origenism,  and  to  aflford  repose  to 
the  obnoxious  party.  The  clamor  of  the  late  contest 
seems  to  have  sunk  at  once  into  silence ;  and  as  the 
impression  was  almost  universal  that  the  quarrel  had 
been,  in  a  great  measure,  personal,  that  it  had  been 
marked  with  unwarrantable  violence  and  pursued  too 
far,^  its  victims  were  regarded  with  less  rigor  than 
was  usual  in  cases  of  adjudged  heresy.  Rufinus 
appears  to  have  enjoyed,  at  Aquileia,  the  patronage 
of  his  own  bishop,^  and  the  countenance,  perhaps, 
of  other  dignitaries  in  the  Italian  churches.^  He 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life,  unmolested,  in  com- 
posing Commentaries  on  the  Scriptures,  and  in  trans- 
lating: Orio^en  and  other  Greek  writers  ;  till,  in  a.  d. 
409,  he  fled  at  the  approach  of  the  northern  bar- 
barians, and  retired  into  Sicily,  where  he  died  the 
next  year.  Melania,  his  noble  and  faithful  patroness, 
accompanied  him,  with  a  numerous  train,  to  Sicily. 
Proceeding  thence  to  Africa,  where  she  was   compli- 

1  The  banishment  of  Chrysostom  roused  the  grief  and  indignation  of  a  numerous 
party  in  the  East,  and  of  all  the  West.  Unremitted  efforts  were  made  for  his 
recall,  but  he  died  in  the  mean  time;  and,  though  it  had  been  resolved  to  arraign 
Theophilus  before  a  General  Council,  the  affair  was  dropped. 

2  He  translated  Eusebius's  Eccl.  History  at  the  request  of  Chromatins,  Bishop 
of  Aquileia. 

3  Hieron.  Apolog.  adv.  Rufin.,  lib.  iii.,  p.  453, 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  227 

mented  by  Augustine,  she  pursued  her  way  into  Pal- 
estine. Her  death  soon  followed,  at  Jerusalem,  the 
scene  of  her  former  munificence ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing her  connection  with  the  Origenists,  she  was 
honored  with  the  title  of  saint,  and  her  name  inserted 
in  the  public  martyrologies.^  John  of  Jerusalem  was, 
the  meanwhile,  strongly  suspected  of  retaining  a  secret 
partiality  for  the  proscribed  doctrines ;  but  he  con- 
ducted so  warily  as  to  enjoy  his  bishopric  in  quiet ; 
and  even  his  implacable  neighbor,  Jerome,  could  find 
no  pretence  for  renewing  the  quarrel.^  Evagrius 
Ponticus,  having  been  overlooked  in  the  rage  of  The- 
ophilus,  died,  probably  about  this  time,  in  some  undis- 
turbed retreat  among  the  Egyptian  monasteries  ;  but 
Palladius  of  Gallatia,  late  Bishop  of  Helenopolis,  was 
suflTering  in  banishment,  not  for  his  Origenism,  but 
for  his  adherence  to  the  exiled  Chrysostom.  He  was 
afterwards  recalled,  however,  and  appointed  over  the 
church  of  Aspora,  in  his  native  province.^  Theophi- 
lus  himself  now  provoked  the  abhorrence  of  such  as 
remembered  his  former  violence  and  solemn  prohibi- 
tions, by  amusing  his  leisure  with  the  perusal  of 
Origen's  works  ;  and  he  openly  asserted,  as  his  justi- 
fication, that,  among  some  thorns  which  they  con- 
tained, he  found  many  beautiful  and  precious  flowers. 
He  had,  however,  written  a  large  volume  against 
Origen,  which,  though  it  has  long  since  perished, 
survived  his  death  in  a.  D.  412.     It  is  remarkable, 


1  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxii.,  chap.  22,  and  Huetii  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4, 
Bee.  1,  §  22. 

2  Hieronymi,  Epist.  Ixxvii.  vel.  81.,  ad  Augustiu.,  torn,  iv.,  part  ii.,  p.  642. 

3  Du  Pin's  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  art.  Palladius,  and  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  art.  Pal- 
ladius, and  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxi.,  chap.  59,  and  xxii.  3, 10. 


228  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

also,  that  Jerome  still  coutinued  to  quote  Origen  as 
an  able  and  antlioritative  exponnder  of  Scripture,^ 
while  he,  at  the  same  time,  maintained  his  hatred 
against  Kufinus  and  his  part}^,  and  never  spoke  of 
them  but  with  indecent  abuse. ^  The  errors  of  Origen, 
that  phrase  so  indefinite  though  so  often  repeated, 
were  also  the  subject  of  his  occasional  reprehension. 
He  continued  to  dwell  on  nearly  the  same  particulars 
as  formerly ;  still  passing  over  the  tenet  of  Univer- 
salism,  although  it  was  plainly  taught  in  some  of  the 
extracts  which  he  adduced  as  pernicious  on  other 
accounts.^  His  present  belief,  however,  at  least  his 
professed  belief,  was,  that  the  devil  and  his  angels, 
obstinate  infidels  and  open  blasphemers,  shall  sufier 
endless  torments,  while  such  as  have  embraced  Chris- 
tianity, yet  led  vicious  lives,  shall  be  consigned  only 
to    a   long,    but    temporary   purgatory   after   death."* 

1  Hieronymi,  Epist.  Ixxiv.  vel.  89,  ad  Augustin.,  pp.  619,  620. 

2  Hieron.,  Epist.  xcvi.  vel.  16,  ad  Princip.,  pp.  781,  782;  and  Epist.  xcvli.,  vel.  8, 
ad  Demetriad.,  pp.  793,  794. 

3  Hieron.,  Epist.  xciv.,  vel.  59,  ad  Avitum,  Jerome  wrote  this  letter  about  A.  D. 
407,  to  accompany  his  translation  of  Origen's  books  Of  Principles,  which  he  gave  to 
one  Avitus,  a  Spaniard.  It  was  composed  for  the  purpose  of  pointing  out  the 
errors  which  those  books  contained ;  and  the  following  he  selects  as  the  principal : 
1.  That  concerning  the  Trinity.  2.  The  original  equality  of  all  intellectual 
creatures,  and  their  perpetual  revolution  from  bliss  to  misery,  and  from  misery  to 
bliss,  by  means  of  vice  and  virtue.  3.  That  all  bodies  whatever,  with  Avhich 
rational  beings  are  clothed,  will  at  length  vanish  into  nothing.  4.  That  innumer- 
able worlds  have  preceded,  and  that  innumerable  others  are  to  succeed,  this 
present.  5.  That  the  flames  and  torments  of  Gehenna,  or  hell,  which  the 
Scriptures  threaten  to  sinners,  are  nothing  but  the  remorse  of  their  consciences  in 
the  future  world.  6.  That  our  present  conditions  and  circumstances  arc  allotted 
us  on  account  of  our  merits  or  demerits  in  a  former  state  of  being.  And  7.  That 
as  Christ  has  been  crucified  for  mankind  in  this  world,  so  he  will,  perhaps,  suffer 
death  in  eternity,  for  the  salvation  of  the  devil  and  his  angels.  These  errors  of 
Origen,  Jerome  exposes  by  means  of  long  quotations  from  the  books  Of  Principles; 
and  several  of  these  extracts  incidentally  mention  the  restitution  of  all  creatures 
to  purity  and  bliss;  but  on  this  particular  our  author  makes  no  direct  remarks. 

*  Hieron.  Comment,  in  Esaiam,  lib.  xvi.  (cap.  Ixvi.,  v.  24).  Written  A.  D.  409, 
tom.  ill. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  229 

This  doctrine  he  appears  to  have  avowed  for  the  rest 
of  his  life/  sometimes  acknowledging,  however,  that 
those  sinners  who  have  been  severely  pmiished  in  this 
world,  such  as  the  antediluvians,  the  Sodomites,  and 
Pharaoh's  host,  will  be  pardoned  in  the  next.^  After 
all,  there  is  some  reason  to  suspect  that  Jerome  still 
remained,  though  in  secret,  a  Universalist.^ 

1  Hieron.  contra  Pelagian,  lib.  i.,  cap.  9.    Written  about  A.  D.  415. 

2  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  Jerorne. 

3  See  his  Comment,  in  Esaiam,  lib.  xvl.  (cap.  Ixvi.,  v.  24).  Commenting  upon 
these  words  of  the  prophet.  They  shall  go  forth  and  look  upon  the  carcasses  of  the 
men  that  have  transgressed  agaiiist  me;  for  their  worm  shall  not  die,  neither  sJiall 
their  fire  be  quenched  ;  and  they  shall  be  an  abhorring  unto  all  flesh,  Jerome  says, 
"  This  fire  will  burn  as  long  as  that  matter  remains  which  feeds  the  voracious 
flame.  If,  therefore,  any  one's  conscience  be  infested  with  tares,  which  the  enemy 
sowed  while  the  householder  was  asleep,  the  fire  will  burn  and  devour  them.  And 
in  the  eyes  of  all  the  saints  shall  be  manifested  the  torments  of  those  who,  instead 
of  laying  gold,  silver,  precious  stones  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Lord,  have  built 
thereupon  hay,  wood,  stubble,  the  fuel  of  the  eternal  fire.  Moreover,  they  who 
weuld  have  these  torments,  though  protracted  through  many  ages,  come  at  length  to 
an  end,  use  the  following  texts :  When  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  have  come 
in,  then  all  Israel  shall  be  saved.  (Horn.  xi.  25,  26.)  Again:  God  had  concluded 
all  under  sin.  that  lie  may  have  mercy  upon  all.  In  another  passage  it  is  said, 
I  will  sustain  the  wrath  of  the  Lord,  for  I  have  sinned  against  him,  until  he  justify 
my  cause,  and  bring  forth  my  judgment,  and  lead  me  into  light.  (Micah  vii.  9.) 
And  again  :  I  will  bless  thee,  0  Lord,  that  thou  wast  angry  with  me.  Thou  didst 
turn  thy  face  from  me  ;  but  thou  hast  had  compassion  upon  me.  (Isa.  xii.  1.) 
The  Lord  also  says  to  the  sinner,  when  the  wrath  of  my  fury  shall  have  passed,  I 
will  heal  thee  again.  Accordingly  it  is  said,  in  another  place,  Uoio  great  is  the 
midtltade  of  thy  favors,  0  Lord,  which  thou  Jiast  laid  up  in  secret  for  them  that 
fear  thee!  (Ps.  xxi.  19.)  All  which  texts  they  repeat,  in  order  to  maintain  that 
after  punishments  and  torture,  there  will  be  a  refreshing,  which  must  now  be 
hidden  from  those  to  whom  fear  is  necessary,  that  while  they  fear  the  torments 
they  may  desist  from  sin.  We  ought  to  leave  it  to  the  wisdom  of  God  alone, 
whose  measure  not  only  of  mercy,  but  of  torment,  is  just,  and  who  knows  whom 
to  judge,  and  in  what  manner,  and  how  long  to  punish.  We  may  only  say,  as 
becomes  human  frailty.  Lord,  contend  not  with  me  in  thy  fmn/,  nor  in  thy  wrath 
take  me  away.  (Ps.)  And  as  we  believe  in  the  eternal  torments  of  the  devil  and 
of  all  deniers  and  impious  men  who  have  said  in  their  heart.  There  is  no  God  ;  so 
we  may  suppose  that  the  sentence  of  the  Judge  on  those  sinners  and  impious 
persons  who  nevertheless  are  Christians,  and  whose  works  are  to  be  tried  and 
purged  in  the  fire,  will  be  moderated  and  mixed  with  mercy."  Considering 
Jerome's  usual  positiveness,  and  especially  his  violence  in  the  late  contention,  I 
cannot  satisfactorily  account  for  the  foregoing  language,  so  moderate  if  not  even 
equivocal,  without  supposing  that  he  himself  secretly  agreed  with  those  Restora- 
tionists  of  whom  he  speaks. 


230  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Nor  did  he  stand  altogether  alone  in  the  church. 
The  orthodox  of  this  age  may  be  divided  into  iive 
classes,  with  respect  to  their  views  of  future  punish- 
ment and  the  final  extent  of  salvation:  1.  The  most 
rififid  among:  them  believed  that  none  would  here- 
after  be  saved,  except  those  who  died  in  the  true 
faith  and  in  the  exercise  of  godliness ;  and  most,  if 
not  all,  of  these  held,  for  the  less  deserving  saints  a 
mild  purgatory,  by  which  they  were  to  be  thoroughly 
cleansed  before  their  admission  into  heaven.  Such 
were  the  sentiments  of  the  famous  Augustine,^  the 
oracle  of  the  western  church,  who  was,  however, 
disposed,  at  times,  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  damna- 
tion.^  2.  Another  class  held,  in  substance,  with  the 
more  ancient  fathers  Lactantius,  Hilary,  Basil,  and 
Ambrose,  that  all  would  finally  be  saved  who  con- 
tinued to  the  last  in  the  Catholic  faith  and  discipline, 
whatever  were  their  moral  characters  ;  but  that  such 
of  them  as  lived  wickedly  should  suffer  a  long  and 
excruciating  trial  by  fire,  in  the  future  world,  before 
their  reception  to  bliss.  This,  probably,  was  the 
common,  the  popular  belief;  and  Jerome  must  be 
numbered  among  its  professed  advocates.  3.  Others 
believed  that  all  would  eventually  be  saved,  who  had 
been  baptized  in  the  Catholic  church,  and  had  par- 
taken of  the  eucharist,  into  whatever  crimes,  errors, 
and  heresies  they  might  afterwards  have  fallen; 
alleging  in  their  support  the  declarations  of  the 
Saviour,  that  whoever  eateth  of  this  bread   shall  live 

1  Augustin.,  De  Civitate  Dei,  lib.  xx.,  cap.  1,  and  xxi.,  24  and  26.    See  also  Du 
Pin's  Biblioth.  Patrum.,  art.  Augustine. 

2  Augustin.,  Enchiridion  ad  Laurentium,  cap.  112, 113.  De  Fide,  et  Op.,  cap.  23, 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  231 

forever^  and  the  remark  of  the  apostle,  that  the 
church  is  the  body  of  Christ.  4.  Many  of  the  ortho- 
dox, though  they  held,  agreeably  to  the  decision  of 
the  late  councils  against  Origen,  that  the  devil  and 
his  angels  would  suffer  endless  punishment,  believed, 
nevertheless,  that  all  mankind,  without  exception, 
would  be  saved  ;  the  wicked,  after  ages  of  torment  in 
hell.  5.  The  last  class  of  the  orthodox,  which  was 
perhaps  small,  held  that  God  had  indeed  threatened 
future  misery  on  the  impenitent,  but  that  the  saints, 
at  the  great  judgment  day,  would  so  earnestly  inter- 
cede with  the  Almighty  in  behalf  of  the  world,  that 
all  mankind,  even  the  impious  and  the  infidels,  would 
be  saved  without  any  suffering  at  all ;  while  the  devil 
and  his  angels  should  be  abandoned  to  epdless  torture. 
To  prove  the  right  of  God  to  remit  his  threatenings, 
they  adduced  the  judgment  denounced,  but  not 
executed,  upon  Nineveh.^  The  two  classes,  last 
named,  seem  to  have  formed,  if  we  reckon  them 
together,  a  large  proportion  of  the  orthodox.^ 

All  this  variety  of  opinion  appears  to  have  been 
tolerated  in  the  church ;  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  there  were  some  who  still  held  in  secret,  with 
Origen,  that  all  intelligent  creatures,  including  the 
apostate  angels,  would  ultimately  be  reconciled  to 
God. 

This  last  opinion,  heretical  as  it  had  been  adjudged, 
was     certainly    spreadinsr    and    openly 

^  1,^      •        +V  \u  +  •  "p         A.D.410to415. 

taught,  m  the  north-eastern  province  ot 

1  Augustin.,  De  Ci\it.  Dei,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  17 — 24. 

2  Augustin.,  Enchiridion,  cap.  112.  "  Quam  plurimi" — very  many,  as  many  as 
possible  — is  the  phrase  by  which  he  denotes  the  number  of  those  who  did  not 
beUeve  that  eternal  punishment  would  be  actually  inflicted. 


232  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

Spain,  that  now  bears  the  name  of  Catalonia.  About 
fifty  miles  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Ebro  stands  the 
modern  city  of  Tarragona,  on  the  venerable  ruins  of 
the  ancient  metropolis,  Tarraco ;  which,  from  the 
summit  of  a  gentle  eminence,  overlooked  the  Medi- 
terranean to  the  south,  and  a  fertile  country  inland.^ 
Two  of  the  citizens,  by  the  name  of  Avitus,  having 
spent  some  time  in  the  East,  returned  not  far  from 
A.  D.  410 ;  and  one  of  them  brought  from  Jerome,  in 
Palestine,  the  correct  translation  of  Origen's  books 
Of  Principles,  together  with  a  long  Letter  pointing 
out  their  erroneous  doctrines.^  But  the  antidote 
proved  only  a  partial  preventive.  While  the  two 
friends  rejected  some  of  Origen's  speculations,  they 
adopted  others  ;  and  with  the  assistance  of  one  Basil, 
a  Grecian,  they  proceeded  to  teach  among  the  people 
the  following  peculiar  tenets  :  1.  That  all  things  had, 
from  eternity,  a  real  existence  in  the  mind  of  Deity. 
2.  That  angels,  human  souls,  and  demons  were  of  one 
uniform,  equal  substance,  and  originally  of  the  same 
rank ;  and  that  their  present  diversity  is  the  conse- 
quence of  their  former  deserts.  3.  That  this  world 
was  made  for  the  punishment  and  purification  of  the 
souls  which  had  sinned  in  the  pre-existent  state.  4. 
That  the  flames  of  future  torment  are  not  material 
fire,  but  only  the  remorse  of  conscience.  5.  That 
they  are  not  endless  ;  for,  although  they  are  called 
everlasting,  yet  that  word,  in  the  original  Greek, 
does  not,  according  to  its  etymology  and  its  frequent 


1  Swinburne's  Travels  in  Spain. 

2Hieronymi,  Epist.  xciv.,  vel.  59,  ad  Avitum.     See  note  3,  page  228. 


OF  UNI  VERS  ALISM.  233 

use,  signify  endless ^  but  answers  only  to  the  duration 
of  an  age  ;  so  that  every  sinner,  after  the  purification 
of  his  conscience,  shall  return  into  the  unity  of  the 
body  of  Christ.  6.  That  the  devil  himself  will,  at 
length,  be  saved,  when  all  his  wickedness  shall  have 
been  subdued.  7.  That  Christ  had  been  employed, 
before  his  advent  on  earth,  in  preaching  to  the  angels 
and  exalted  powers.  8.  That  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  are  to  be  reckoned  amonor  those  intellio^ent  ra- 
tional  creatures  who,  according  to  St.  Paul,  were 
made  subject  to  vanity,  and  likewise  to  hope.^ 

These  doctrines,  together  witli  the  separate  heresy 
of  the  Priscillianists  which  flourished  in  Spain,  caused 
so  much  disturbance  at  Tarraco  and  its  neighborhood, 
that  two  of  the  bishops  at  length  sent  a  deputation  on 
the  subject  to  Augustine,  in  Africa;  and  he  immedi- 
ately wrote,  in  return,  a  small  book  Against  (he  Pris- 
cillianists  and  Origenists^  but  chiefly  against 
the  latter.  In  opposition  to  their  views  of 
future  punishment,  he  asserted  the  materiality  of  its 
fire,  and  laboriously  defended  the  eternity  of  its  dura- 
tion ;  attempting  to  maintain  that  the  original  word, 
translated  everlasting^  always  signified  endless.  But, 
because  there  might  be  some  exceptions,  as  he  at  the 
same  time  inconsistently  admitted,  he  then  changed 
his  ground,  and  resorted  to  that  declaration  of  Christ, 
These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment,  hut 
the  righteous  into  life  eternal  (Matt.  xxv.  46),  where 
the  same  Gre^k  word  was  applied  to  the  torments  of 
the  damned  and  to  the  bliss  of  the  saints  ;  so  that  if 

lOrosii  Consultatio  sive  Commonitorium  ad  Auguatin.  inter  Augustini.  Opp., 
torn,  vi.,  edit.  Basil,  1569. 


234  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

the  Origenists  would,  through  compassion,  limit  the 
duration  of  the  former,  they  must  also  restrict  that 
of  the  latter.  But,  if  this  should  not  convince  them, 
how  could  they  elude  that  declaration  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  T^e^V  worm  shall  not  die.,  neither  shall  their 
fire  be  quenched?  (Isa.  Ixvi.  24.)^ 

Such  is  the  order  and  substance  of  his  arguments. 
It  is  remarkable  that  here  we  meet  with  the  earliest 
attempt  at  criticism  on  that  original  word  which  has 
been  the  subject  of  so  much  cavilling  in  modern 
times.  But  Augustine,  a  Latin  writer,'  was  too  im- 
perfectly acquainted  with  the  Greek  language  to  de- 
fine its  terms  ;  and,  if  we  may  judge  from  what  we 
have  observed  in  our  own  day,  his  criticisms  were  ac- 
counted satisfactory  by  the  determined  believers  in 
endless  misery,  but  absurd  by  the  Universalists.  A 
few  years  afterwards,  in  composing  a  general  body 
of  divinity,  he  repeated  some  of  these  arguments, 
with  several  additions,  and  combated  the  notions  of 
all  the  several  classes  just  mentioned,  who  extended 
the  happiness  of  heaven  beyond  the  number  who  died 
in  faith  and  holiness.^  He  has  furnished  the  moderns 
with  many  of  the  trite  but  popular  objections,  which 
are  now  alleged  from  the  Scriptures,  against  the  sal- 
vation of  all  mankind.^ 

1  Augustini  lib.  Contra  Priscillianistas  et  Origenistas,  torn.  vi. 

2  Augustin.  De  Civit.  Dei.  lib.  sxi.,  cap.  23—24. 

3  As  a  specimen  of  his  reasoning  or  declamation,  which  with  him  was  original, 
I  subjoin  an  entire  chapter  from  his  great  work,  The  City  of  God :  — 

"  And  in  the  first  place  we  should  ascertain  why  the  Church  has  refused  to  allow 
people  to  dispute  in  favor  of  a  purification  and  release  of  the  devil  himself,  after 
very  great  and  lasting  punishments.  It  was  not  that  so  many  holy  men,  so  well 
instructed  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  grudged  any  of  the  angels  a  purifica- 
tion and  the  bliss  of  heaven  after  so  great  torments ;  but  it  was  because  they  saw 
it  impo.s8ible  to  annul  or  weaken  that  divine  sentence  which  the  Lord  declared  he 


OF   UNIVERSALTSM.  235 

But  however  inconclusive  his  arguments  may  have 
been  deemed,  the  great  authority  of  his  opinions, 
especially  in  the  western  churches,  must  have 
checked  the  progress  of  any  doctrine  which  he  was 
known  so  decidedly  to  oppose.  Already  were  his 
talents,  his  virtues,  and  his  faithfulness  regarded  with 
a  general  homage,  such  as  had  been  enjoyed  by  none 
of  the  Christian  doctors  since  the  time  of  the  more 
vigorous  and   enterprising,  but  less  amiable  Athana- 

would  pronounce  in  the  judgment.  Depart  from,  me.  ye  cursed,  into  eternal  Jire, 
jyrepared  for  the  devil  and  Ms  angels.  (Matt.  xxv.  41.)  For  thus  it  is  shown  that 
the  devil  and  his  angels  are  to  burn  in  eternal  fire.  As  it  is  written  in  the 
Apocalypse :  T7ie  devil  who  deceived  them  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  and 
brimstone,  ichere  are  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet ;  and  they  shall  be  tormejited 
day  and  night  forever  and  ever.  (Rev.  xx.  10.)  ^Vhat  is  called  in  the  other  pas- 
sage eternal,  is  here  expressed  by  forever  and  ever ;  by  which  words  the  divine 
Scripture  is  wont  to  mean  nothing  but  what  is  endless  in  duration.  And  there  is 
no  other  reason,  nor  can  one  more  just  and  manifest  be  found,  why  we  should 
hold  it  fixed  and  immutable  in  the  sincerest  piety,  that  the  devil  and  his  angels 
are  never  to  return  to  righteousness  and  the  life  of  the  holy,  than  that  the  Scrip- 
ture, which  deceives  no  one,  says  that  God  spared  them  not  (2  Pet.  ii.  4),  but  de- 
livered them  up  to  be  kept  in  prisons  of  infernal  darkness,  in  order  to  be  punished 
at  the  last  judgment,  when  they  shall  be  sent  into  eternal  fire,  where  they  shall  be 
tormented  forever  and  ever.  This  being  the  case,  how  can  all  or  any  of  mankind, 
after  a  certain  period,  be  restored  from  the  eternity  of  this  punishment,  and  not 
immediately  weaken  that  faith  by  which  we  believe  the  torments  of  the  demons 
will  be  endless  ?  For  if  all  or  any  of  those  to  whom  it  shall  be  said.  Depart  from 
me,  ye  cursed,  into  eternal  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels,  shall  not 
ahvays  remain  there,  what  reason  have  we  to  believe  that  the  devil  and  his  angels 
will  always  remain  there?  Will  the  sentence  of  God,  which  is  pronounced  both 
against  the  evil  angels  and  men,  be  true  with  respect  to  the  angels,  and  false  with 
respect  to  men  ?  Thus  it  will  plainly  be,  if  not  what  God  said,  but  what  men 
suspect,  avail  the  most.  But  because  that  cannot  be  the  case,  they  who  would 
shun  eternal  torments  ought,  while  there  is  time,  to  yield  to  the  divine  precept 
instead  of  arguing  against  God.  And  again :  how  can  we  suppose  eternal  tor- 
ment to  be  only  a  fire  of  long  duration,  and  yet  eternal  life  to  be  without  end, 
when  in  the  very  same  passage,  and  in  one  and  the  same  sentence,  Christ  said 
with  reference  to  both,  These  shall  go  away  into  eternal  pnnishment,  but  the 
righteous  into  eternal  life.  (Matt.  xxv.  46.)  As  both  are  eternal,  both  certainly 
ought  to  be  understood  either  as  of  long  duration,  but  with  an  end,  or  else  as  per- 
pctual.  with  no  end.  For  they  are  connected  together:  on  the  one  hand,  eternal 
punishment;  on  the  other,  eternal  life.  And  it  is  very  absurd  to  say.  In  this  one 
and  the  same  sense,  that  eternal  life  will  be  without  end,  and  eternal  punish- 
ment will  have  an  end.    Whence,  as  the  eternal  life  of  the  saints  will  be  without  end. 


236  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

sins.  In  the  West  his  decisions  were  received  with 
idmost  universal  deference  ;  and  in  the  East  his  name 
was  regarded  with  great,  though  perhaps  not  equal, 
veneration.  A  long  and  intimate  familiarity  with  the 
Scriptures,  a  competent  share  of  learning,  and  a  large 
fund  of  general  information,  which  had  been  rather 
hastily  collected,  supplied  his  strong  and  capacious 
mind  with  subjects  for  reflection,  and  provided  his 
argumentative  genius  with  the  weapons  of  contro- 
versy, which,  however,  he  generally  managed  with 
moderation.     In   general,   he   treated   his   opponents 


so  also  the  eternal  punishment  of  those  who  shall  suffer  it  will,  without  any 
doubt,  have  no  end."  De  Civitate  Dei,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  23.  This  remains,  even  to 
the  present  day,  the  most  popular  and  perhaps  the  most  plausible  argument 
used  against  the  doctrine  of  Universal  Salvation;  and  yet  it  is  founded  on  one  of 
the  most  palpable  blunders  into  which  the  chureh  has  fallen,  —  that  of  applying 
to  eternity  what  Christ  declared  should  be  accomplished  in  his  own  generation. 
Compare  Matt.  xxv.  31 — ,  with  its  immediate  connection.  Matt.  xxiv.  30 — 34;  and 
also  with  Matt.  x.  23— xvi.  27,  28;  Mark  viii.  38;  ix.  1;  Luke  ix.  26,  27. 

Another  chapter  of  the  same  work  furnishes  us  with  the  original,  I  believe, 
whence  has  been  derived  one  of  the  popular  methods  of  justifying  the  infliction 
of  endless  torments :  "  But  to  human  notions  eternal  punishment  seems  hard  and 
unjust,  because  that  in  the  weakness  of  our  mortal  senses  we  are  destitute  of  that 
most  exalted  and  pure  wisdom  by  which  we  could  realize  how  great  was  the 
wickedness  committed  in  the  first  transgression.  For  in  proportion  as  man  en- 
joyed God,  was  the  magnitude  of  his  impiety  in  forsaking  God :  and  he  was 
worthy  of  eternal  evil,  who  destroyed  in  himself  that  good  which  might  have 
been  eternal.  And  the  whole  mass  of  the  human  race  was  therefore  condemned, 
because  that  he  who  first  introduced  sin  was  punished  together  with  his  posterity 
which  had  its  root  in  him ;  so  that  none  could  be  released  from  this  just  and  mer- 
ited penalty,  but  by  mercy  and  unmerited  grace.  And  thus  mankind  are  so  situ- 
ated that  in  some  of  them  the  power  of  merciful  grace  may  be  exhibited;  and  in 
the  rest,  the  power  of  vindictive  justice.  For  both  could  not  be  manifested  upon 
all;  because  if  all  should  remain  in  the  sufferings  of  their  just  damnation,  in  none 
would  appear  the  merciful  grace  of  redemption,  and  if  all  should  be  translated 
from  darkness  into  light,  in  none  would  appear  the  severity  of  vengeance.  Of 
the  latter  class  there  are  many  more  than  of  the  former  :  that  thus  might  be  shown 
what  was  due  to  all.  And  if  it  had  been  inflicted  upon  all,  none  could,  vrith  pro- 
priety, have  called  in  question  the  justice  of  the  vengeance;  and  the  release  of  so 
many  as  are  saved  therefrom  should  be  an  occasion  of  the  greatest  thanksgiving 
for  the  gift  of  redemption."  De  Civitate  Dei,  lib.  xxi.,  cap.  12.  N.  B.  —  This  was 
written  about  A.  d.  420  or  426. 


OF   UNI  VERS  ALISM.  237 

with  ail  indulgence  to  which  they  were  imacciistomed, 
and  which  would  appear  with  advantage  in  the  theo- 
logical warfare  of  a  later  and  moi-e  refined  age.  That 
he  sometimes  dissembled  for  truth's  sake,  and  that  he 
countenanced  the  legal  persecution  of  schismatics 
when  he  could  not  persuade  them  to  re-enter  the 
Catholic  church,  may  in  justice  be  imputed  to  the  per- 
nicious but  approved  maxims  of  his  times.  Augus- 
tine was  a  great  and  a  good  man.  Yet  he  was  the 
father  of  the  present  orthodox  system  of  total  de- 
pravity, irresistible  grace,  and  sovereign,  partial  elec- 
tion. 

By  introducing  this  sj^stem  of  doctrine  into  the 
church,  he  unknowingly  laid  upon  the  cause  of  Uni- 
versalism  a  remote,  but  eventually,  a  more  fatal 
check  than  even  the  decisions  of  a  council  could 
have  imposed.  Hitherto,  none  of  the  Catholic  Chris- 
tians had  gone  farther,  in  their  very  lowest  descents 
into  orthodoxy,  than  to  represent  that,  from  the  fall 
of  Adam,  all  his  posterity  inherited  a  mortal  constitu- 
tion, and  such  an  unhappy  weakness  of  soul  as,  com- 
bined with  the  depravit}^  of  the  flesh,  caused  a  pro- 
pensity to  sin ;  and  that  the  supernatural  influences 
of  God's  Spirit  were  necessary  to  aid,  not  strictly  to 
create,  good  resolutions,  and  to  render  them  effectual. 
But  this  divine  agency,  they  had  ever  held,  Avas  al- 
ways received  or  rejected,  cherished  or  suppressed, 
yielded  to  or  resisted,  by  the  free  will  of  the  creature  ; 
and  they  had  never  disputed  that  all  had  competent 
power,  both*  natural  and  moral,  to  avail  themselves 
of  its  assistance.  It  was  profiered  sincerely  to  all, 
for  the  single  purpose  of  preserving  in  holiness  such 


238  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

as  were  already  pure,  and  of  reclaiming  the  sinful ; 
for,  it  was  unequivocally  the  will  of  God  that  all 
should  be  saved.  There  may,  indeed,  have  been 
some  who  entertained  a  vague  notion  that  the  devil 
and  his  angels,  when  they  apostatized,  sunk  below 
the  reach  of  divine  mercy,  and  that  impenitent  sin- 
ners, when  they  die,  pass  the  line  that  admits  no  re- 
turn. But  that  God  had  sought  to  prevent  the  fatal 
catastrophe  appears  to  have  been  doubted  by  none ; 
and  that  his  decrees  were  concerned  in  procuring  it 
was  a  thought  from  which  every  one  would  have 
shrunk  with  horror. 

So  long  as  it  was  the  invariable  opinion  that  God 
sincerely  aimed  at  the  repentance  and  salvation  of 
all  his  erring  creatures,  it  is  easy  to  discover  that  a 
silent  but  strong  influence  was  constantly  bearing  the 
more  reflecting  minds  towards  Universalism  ;  since  it 
was  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  will  of  an  im- 
mutable Deity  could  ever  totally  abandon  its  aim,  or 
that  Omnipotence  would  be  forever  frustrated  in  its 
objects  by  the  impotence  of  man.  Resulting  from 
this  view  there  was  also  a  favorable,  though  often 
indefinite,  persuasion  of  the  general  goodness  of  God, 
which  tended  to  suggest  doubts  of  the  eternal  inflic- 
tion of  a  torment  as  fruitless  as  it  was  unmerciful.  But 
when  Christians  became  accustomed  to  consider  it  the 
arbitrary  determination  of  the  almighty  Sovereign  to 
save  a  part,  and  a  part  only,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
abandon  the  rest  to  certain  and  complete  ruin,  the 
doctrine  of  endless  misery  stood  on  its  own  proper 
and  substantial  foundation, — the  divine  counsel;  for 
it  was   not   likely   that   the   neglected   and   helpless 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  239 

wretches  would  be  saved  when  then*  recovery  was  not 
actually  desired  by  God.^ 

This  change  of  doctrine,  one  of  the  most  momentous 
which  has  ever  occurred,  seems  to  have 
taken  place  in  the  church,  like  many 
others,  by  accident  rather  than  by  design.  Two  British 
monks,  Pelagius  and  his  disciple  Celestius,  residing  at 
Rome  early  in  this  century,  imbibed  some  peculiar 
sentiments  from  certain^  Christians  who  had  studied 
in  the  East.  Though  these  sentiments  were  silently 
spreading  in  the  city,  little  notice  was  taken  of  them ; 
and  Pelagius  continued  to  enjoy  a  high  and  deserved 
reputation  for  the  purity  of  his  character  and  for  the 
warmth  of  his  devotion  to  the  church.  Going  at 
length  into  Africa,  he  formed  some  acquaintance  with 
Augustine  ;  and  then  pursued  his  course  on  a  visit  to 
John,  in  Palestine,  leaving  Celestius  at  Carthage. 
Here  the  latter  was  soon  involved  in  a  charge  of 
heresy ;  and  he  was  condemned  at  the  council  of 
Carthage,  in  a.  d.  412,  for  teaching,  what  was  cer- 
tainly a  considerable  variation  from  the  popular  belief 

1 1  do  not  forget,  what  may  at  first  seem  inconsistent  with  this  reasoning,  that 
the  high  Calvinism  of  Whitfield  and  his  school  was  the  unmediate  occasion  of  the 
rise  of  the  present  sect  of  Universalists.  But  then  the  leading  preachers  of 
Whitfield's  connection  did  not  usually  dwell  on  the  black  side  of  the  picture. 
The  favorite  themes  on  which  many  of  them  used  to  expatiate,  with  all  the  fervor 
of  enthusiasm,  were  the  complete  pardon  purchased  by  Christ,  the  free,  uncondi- 
tional gift  of  salvation,  and  the  omnipotent  energy  of  G-od's  Spirit  in  converting 
sinners.  When  these  encouraging  topics  were  so  zealously  urged,  without  a  cor- 
responding regard  for  the  decree  of  damnation,  it  was  but  one  step  forward  to  the 
hope,  the  conclusion,  that  God  would  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  this  step, 
the  strong  tide  of  their  new  feelings,  their  view  of  the  Messiah's  increasing  and 
victorious  kingdom,  as  well  as  the  testimonies  of  Scripture,  impelled  them,  often 
before  they  were  thoroughly  aware. 

2  It  has  been  supposed  that  one  Rufinus,  a  Syrian  (a  friend  and  not  the  oppo 
nent  of  Jerome),  brought  this  doctrine  from  Asia  Minor,  and  pernaps  from  Theo 
donis  of  Mopsuestia,  to  Rome,  and  here  taught  it  to  Pelagius. 


240  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

of  the  age,  that  Adam  was  created  mortal,  and  that 
his  transgression  aifected  none  of  his  posterity,  but 
himself  alone.  To  these  particulars  we  may  here  add 
some  others  which  were  involved  during  the  progress 
of  the  succeeding  controversy,  and  which  complete 
the  doctrine  of  Pelasfianism  :  that  as  mankind  are  now 
born  pure,  they  are  able,  after  transgression,  to  repent, 
reform,  and  arrive  at  length  to  the  highest  degrees  of 
virtue  and  piet}^  even  to  perfection,  by  the  exercise 
merely  of  their  own  natural  powers  ;  that  though  the 
external  excitements  of  divine  grace  are  necessary  to 
rouse  their  endeavors,  yet  they  have  no  need  of  any 
internal  agency  of  the  Hol}^  Ghost ;  that  infant  baptism 
does  not  wash  away  sin,  but  is  only  a  ceremony  of 
admittance  into  the  Church  of  Christ ;  and  that  good 
works  are  meritorious  as  the  conditions  of  salvation. 
Such,  it  appears,  were  the  real  tenets  of  Pelagius  and 
Celestius,  though  they  were  sometimes  unjustly 
charged  with  disowning  the  necessity  of  the  grace  of 
God  in  every  sense  relative  to  human  actions,  and 
with  denying  the  utility  of  infant  baptism. 

On  the  condemnation  of  Celestius,  in  the  council  of 
Carthage,  Augustine  began  to  preach  and  to  write 
against  the  heresy  with  his  characteristic  tenderness 
at  first  towards  its  authors,  but^always  with  a  cool, 
invincible  determination  to  destroy  their  doctrine, 
root  and  branch.  But,  in  the  long  contest  which 
followed,  he  himself  went  over,  by  degrees,  to  the 
opposite  extreme ;  and  influenced,  perhaps,  by  the 
early  bias  of  his  Manichean  principles,^  he  maintained, 

1  See  page  126,  note  1.     It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  neariy  all  the  fathers 
who   had  been    converted  from    other   religions,  always  retained  some  of  the 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  241 

what  was  new  in  the  church,  that  Adam's  transgression 
had  so  thoroughh^  corrupted  all  his  posterity,  that,  by 
nature,  they  could  do  only  evil,  and  that  nothing  but 
the  irresistible  Spirit  of  the  Almighty  could  incline 
their  wills  to  good,  and  induce  them,  contrary  to  their 
nature,  to  accept  of  his  grace.  God  alone  was,  from 
first  to  last,  the  immediate  agent  of  their  counternatu- 
ral  conversion ;  and  on  his  arbitrary  pleasure  only  did 
it  depend,  whether  the  impotent  sinner  should  be  ren- 
ovated. From  these  premises  he  advanced  to  the 
necessary  conclusion,  that  God  had  foreordained  whom 
to  convert,  and  finally  to  save,  without  reference  to 
anything  which  they  should  perform ;  while  he  had 
likewise  predetermined  to  pass  by  all  the  remainder  of 
the  fallen  race.  Such  was  the  first  organization  of  the 
present  orthodox  system,  so  far  as  it  regards  total 
depravity,  election,  and  reprobation.^  With  quite 
difierent  views,  the  Pelagians  were  also  attacked  by 


peculiarities  of  their  former  doctrines,  notwithstanding  they  became  the  most 
strenuous  opposers  of  those  systems,  taken  as  a  whole.  Witness  the  converts  of 
the  Greeks,  who  corrupted  Christianity. with  their  old  philosophy;  and  those 
from  the  Magian  religion,  who  introduced  the  monstrous  fables  of  the  Gnos- 
tics. 

1  The  difference  between  Augustine's  doctrine  and  that  of  Calvin,  on  election 
and  reprobation,  though  small,  is  such  as  to  betray  the  crudeness  of  the  master, 
and  the  finishing  touches  of  his  scholar.  Augustine  seems  to  have  held  that  God 
did  not  ordain  the  fall  of  Adam,  and  that  it  was  after  that  event  occurred,  and 
when  it  had  become  certain  that  the  whole  race  would  be  born  totally  depraved, 
and  therefore  under  helpless  bondage  to  sin,  that  the  elect  were  chosen  and  the 
reprobate  abandoned.  The  original  plan  of  creation  did  not  embrace  such  a  re- 
sult. But  Calvin  and  other  reformers,  with  a  better  digested  arrangement,  car- 
ried back  the  separating  decree  to  the  past  ages  of  eternity ;  so  that  mankind  were 
originally  created  for  their  respecj;i%^e  destinations.  Augustine  was  by  no  means 
thoroughly  systematic :  he  held  that  Christ  died  for  all  men;  that  even  genuine 
conversion  is  no  security  of  final  happiness,  as  the  subjects  may  afterwards  fatally 
relapse  and  perish ;  and  that  the  grace  of  perseverance  alone  is  the  pledge  of  per- 
sonal election.  No  infants,  who  had  not  been  baptized,  could  be  saved;  because 
regeneration  was  effected  only  in  the  rite  of  water  baptism. 


242  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

other   cotemporaiy  writers,  and   among  the  rest  by 
Jerome,  with  his  accustomed  violence. 

During  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  his  troubles, 
Pelaffius   resided   in   Palestine,    enioyino^ 

A.D.413to420.       ^,         ^^  .-ri.  ^T  11 

the  patronage  of  John  of  Jerusalem ;  and 
when,  in  A.  d.  416,  he  was  arraigned,  on  a  charge  of 
heresy,  before  a  synod  at  Diospolis,  near  Joppa,  that 
prelate  earnestly  defended  him,  and  procured  his  en- 
tire acquittal.^  But  John  did  not  live  to  witness  the 
conclusion  of  the  controversy.  A  peaceful  death 
closed  his  career  in  the  beginning  of  a.  d.  417,  at 
about  the  age  of  sixty.  He  was  somewhat  famous  in 
his  day,  but  chiefly  for  the  part  he  bore  in  the  contests 
which  agitated  the  church.  We  discover  nothing  in 
his  life  that  evinces  superior  learning,  talents,  or 
piety ;  and  as  he  has  been  generally  described,  he  be- 
trays considerable  petulance,  timidity,  and  wary  cun- 
ning. In  justice  to  him,  however,  we  must  remember 
that  his  history  is  collected  wholly  from  his  opponents, 
and  chiefly  from  his  bitter  enemies.  His  friends,  it  is 
certain,  gave  him  the  character  of  a  worthy  and  pious 
man ;  and  even  Pope  Anastasius  and  Augustine  ad- 
dressed him  in  terms  of  respect  and  esteem.  Indeed, 
such  as  he  is  actually  described,  it  would  be  no  dis- 
paragement to  the  generality  of  his  cotemporaries  to 
compare  them  with  him.  He  Avas  a  zealous  patron  of 
the  monastic  life,  and  joined  in  the  prevailing  venera- 
tion of  relics ;  and  his  last  days  were  honored,  to 
adopt  the  language  of  those  times,  by  the  miraculous 
discovery  of  the  bodies  of  Stephen  the  fu'st  martyr, 
of  Nicodemus  who  came  to  our  Saviour  by  night,  and 

1  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxiii.,  chap.  19,  20. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  243 

of  Gamaliel,  the  master  of  St.  Paul.  These  remams, 
undoubtedly  of  some  nameless  persons,  drew  vast 
concourses  on  then-  exhibition,  excited  universal  awe, 
and  of  course  wrought  numerous  miracles,  according 
to  the  invariable  custom  of  relics  in  that  age.^ 

In  taking  our  final  leave  of  John  of  Jerusalem,  we 
must  also  bid  adieu  to  one  who  has  borne  a  still  more 
conspicuous  part  in  the  events  of  this  history.  Je- 
rome died,  very  old,  at  Bethlehem,  in  the  year  420 ; 
but  the  account  we  have  already  given  of  his  life  and 
conduct  sufficiently  exhibits  his  character,  without  the 
tediousness  of  a  formal  analysis. 

Of  all  the  ancient  Universalists,  none  is  more  respec- 
table for  o:ood  sense  and  sober  iudofment, 

..  ^       ,  .,  ..%''-,  A.D.420to428. 

II  we  may  rely  on  the  opinion  ot  modern 
critics,^  than  Theodorus,  Bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  a 
very  eminent  orthodox  father,  and  a  voluminous 
writer.  Belonging  to  an  illustrious  Syrian  family  in 
Antioch,  he  was  placed  under  the  instruction  of  the 
renowned  heathen  sophist  and  critic,  Libanius  ;  and 
then,  in  company  with  the  celebrated  Chrysostom, 
he  studied  divinity  in  the  school  of  Diodorus,  wliom 
we  have  named  as  the  Universalist  Bishop  of  Tarsus. 
At  the  close  of  his  studies,  he  appears  to  have  been 
ordained  a  presbyter  in  his  native  city.  Here,  also, 
we  soon  afterwards  find  him  engaged,  with  Chrysos- 
tom, instructing  youths  in  a  monastery,  where  he  had 
the  famous  Nestorius  for  one  of  his  pupils.     In  the 

1  rieurj''s  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxiii..  chap.  22,  23. 

2  Beausobre  (Hist,  de  Manichee,  lib.  i.,  chap.  4,  torn,  i.,  p.  288),  Lardner, 
(Credibility,  etc.,  chap.  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia),  and  Mosheim  (Eccl.  Hist.,  cent, 
v.,  part  ii.,  chap.  2.  3).  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  his  useful  talents  and  apparent 
sound  judgment. 


244  THE    AXCIENT   HISTORY 

year  392,  a  little  before  the  death  of  his  master  Dio- 
dorus,  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  which 
stood  nearly  forty  miles  eastward  of  Tarsus,  and  oc- 
cupied both  banks  of  the  river  Pjo-amus.  Here  he 
passed  a  long  episcopate  of  about  thirty-six  years,  in 
composing  numerous  commentaries  and  polemical 
works ;  maintaining,  the  mean  while,  the  reputation 
of  a  distinguished  preacher  at  Antioch,  at  Constanti- 
nople, and  over  all  the  East. 

Like  his  master,  Diodorus,  he  followed  the  natural 
and  simple  mode  of  interpretation ;  and  it  would 
seem,  from  some  fragments,  which  alone  have  de- 
scended to  us,  of  his  writings,  that  he  cultivated  this 
method  with  more  judgment  than  a  large  part  even 
of  our  modern  commentators.  So  much  did  he  dislike 
the  allegorical  expositions  of  Origen,  of  w^hom  he  w^as 
no  admirer,  that  he  published  a  work  against  them.^ 
Though  he  held  the  tenets  for  which  Pelagius  was 
condemned,  and  though  he  was,  perhaps,  the  source 
whence  they  w^ere  indirectly  transmitted  to  that  unfor- 
tunate heretic,  yet  his  orthodoxy  seems  never  to  have 
been  impeached  during  his  lifetime.  It  appears,  also, 
that  he  avowed  wath  impunity  the  restoration  of  the 
wicked  from  hell,  long  after  the  contest  w^ith  the  Ori- 
genists  had  brought  it  into  disrepute.  "They,"  says 
he,  "who  have  chosen  the  good,  shall,  in  the  future 
world,  be  blessed  and  honored.  But  the  wicked, 
w^ho  have  committed  evil  the  whole  period  of  their 
lives,  shall  be  punished  till  they  learn  that,  by  con- 
tinuing in  sin,  they  only  continue  in  misery.     And 

1  Facundi  Hermiauensis  de  Tribus  Capit.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  6,  iuter  Sirmondi  0pp., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  362. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  245 

when,  by  this  means,  they  shall  have  been  brought 
to  fear  God,  and  to  regard  him  with  good-will,  they 
shall  obtain  the  enjoyment  of  his  grace.  For,  he 
never  would  have  said.  Until  thou  hast  paid  the  utter- 
most farthing  (Matt.  v.  26),  unless  we  could  be  re- 
leased from  punishment,  after  having  suffered  ade- 
quately for  sin ;  nor  would  he  have  said.  He  shall  he 
beaten  with  many  stripes,  and  again,  He  shall  he  heaten 
with  few  stripes  (Luke  xii.  47,  48),  unless  the  punish- 
ments to  be  endured  for  sin  will  have  an  end."^  We 
learn,  also,  from  Photius,  of  the  ninth  century,  who 
was  one  of  the  most  trusty  ecclesiastical  critics  of  an- 
tiquity, that  he  found,  in  another  work  of  Theodorus, 
"  the  notion  of  Origen  concerning  the  termination  of 
the  punishments  of  the  future  state."  ^ 

He  maintained  that  the  reason  why  God  permitted 
sin  was,  that  it  would  be  ultimately  made  to  subserve 
the  good  of  mankind.^  According  to  Photius,  he  held 
that  Adam  was  created  mortal :  that  mankind  inherit 
no  moral  corruption  from  him ;  that  infants  are  born 
without  sin ;  and  that  mankind  sin,  not  by  nature,  but 
by  their  free  will ;  or  rather,  he  opposes  the  con- 
trary opinions,  which,  he  says,  were  taught  by  some 
western  Christians,  alluding,  probably,  to  Augustine 
and  his  party. ^  He  was  always  a  firm  and  steady  op- 
poser  of  Arianism  ;  but  it  is  suspected  that  he  was  the 
father   of    Nestorianism,    a   doctrine   which    arrived, 

1  Assemani  Biblioth.  Orient.,  torn,  iii.,  par.  i.,  p.  323. 

2  Pliotii  Biblioth.,  Cod.  177.  The  work  of  Theodorus,  which  Photius  here 
quotes,  must  have  been  written  about  as  late  as  the  year  420;  since  it  is  evident, 
from  its  topics,  that  the  Pelagian  controversy  had  already  made  considerable 
noise  even  in  the  East. 

3  See  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  5th  cent.,  art.  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia. 
*  Photii  Bib.,  Cod.  177. 


246  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

though  ill  a  blind  and  very  circuitous  way,  to  little 
else  than  the  simple  humanity  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
died  undisturbed,  however,  in  the  Catholic  commun- 
ion, in  A.  D.  428,  aged  not  far,  probably,  from  seventy 
years. 

But  after  his  death  he  was  often  reproached  for  his 
Pelagianism,  and  for  his  connection  with  his  scholar 
Nestorius  ;  and,  in  the  middle  of  the  next  century  he 
was  anathematized,  on  the  latter  account,  by  the 
Fifth  General  Council.  Accordingly,  his  works,  for 
the  most  part,  have  either  perished,  or  been  preserved 
only  in  the  Syriac  language,  among  the  Nestorians  of 
the  East.^ 

Directing  our  attention  from  Cilicia,  down  the 
Mediterranean  coast  to  the  Holy  Land, 
we  discover  that  here  Universalism  pre- 
vailed, about  this  time,  to  a  considerable  extent 
among  the  monks,  especially  around  Cesarea  in 
Palestine.  But  the  glimpse  we  obtain  of  the  matter 
is  casual  and  imperfect,  and  soon  obstructed  by  sur- 
rounding darkness.  AYe  only  know  that  Origenism 
had  openly  appeared  in  the  country,  with  a  numerous 
party  of  advocates  ;  and  that  the  particulars,  in  their 
doctrine,  which  gave  most  offence,  were  the  pre- 
existence  of  souls,  and  the  universal  restoration. 
Against  both  of  these  points,   Euthymius,  the  chief 


1  Besides  fragments  of  his  writings  among  the  acts  of  the  Fifth  General  Council, 
in  Facundus  Hermianensis,  and  in  Photius,  it  is  supposed  that  the  Commentary  on 
the  Psalms,  under  the  name  of  Theodorus,  in  Catena  Corderii,  belongs  to  our 
author.  It  is  said  also  that  his  Commentaries  on  the  Twelve  Minor  Prophets  exist 
in  manuscript  in  the  Emperor's  Library  at  Vienna,  in  the  Librarj-  of  St.  Mark  at 
Venice,  and  in  the  Library  of  the  Vatican.  These,  however,  form  but  a  very 
email  part  of  the  ancient  catalogue  of  his  works. 


OF  UNIVERSALISM.  247 

abbot  who  then  presided  over  the  monasteries  in  the 
desei-t  between  Jerusalem  and  the  Dead  Sea,  opposed 
his  utmost  zeal  and  indignation,^,  but  with  what  effect 

1  Vita  Euthymii,  per  Cyrillum  Scythopolitaniun,  inter  Cotelerii  Monumenta 
Graec.  Ecclesiae,  torn,  iv.,  p.  52.  See  also  a  Paraphrase  on  this  work,  by  Symeon 
Metaphrastes,  in  torn.  ii.  a 

a  Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyrus,  in  Syria,  Historian,  etc.,  was  a  Universalist.  This 
fact  has  been  clearly  presented  by  the  learned  Prof.  O.  Cone,  of  the  Divinity  School 
of  St.  Lawrence  University  (N.  Y.),  in  an  article  in  the  "Ambassador,"  noticed  by 
Dr.  T.  B.  Thayer,  in  the  ''  Universalist  Quarterly,"  for  April,  1866.  We  extract 
from  this  notice  some  of  the  following  statements  :  — 

Theodoret  was  born  at  Antioch,  A.  D.  393.  He  was  educated  in  a  monastery, 
having  for  fellow-pupils  and  special  friends,  Nestorius  and  John,  afterwards 
Patriarchs  of  Constantinople  and  Antioch.  His  teacher  in  theology  was  Theodore, 
of  Mopsuestia,  Bishop,  and  renowned  as  a  Universalist;  and  he  learned  eloquence 
and  sacred  literature  with  Chrysostom,  the  *'  golden-mouthed."  He  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Cyrus  when  thirty-four  years  of  age.  His  diocese  contained 
about  eight  hundred  churches.  Mosheim  declares  him  to  have  been  ••'  eloquent, 
learned,  skilled  in  every  branch  of  theological  learning ;  "  and  Dr.  Murdoch,  in  his 
notes  to  Mosheim,  says  he  was  "  frank,  open-hearted,  ingenuous,  had  elevated 
views  and  feelings,  was  resolute  and  unbending,  yet  generous,  sympathetic,  and 
ardently  pious."  He  was  involved  in  the  Nestorian  controversy,  and  the  contro- 
versies growing  therefrom,  and  was  deposed  from  his  see  by  the  Council  of 
Ephesus,  A.  D.  449,  but  was  restored  by  the  General  Council  held  at  Chalcedoq, 
A.  D.  451.  He  died  A.  D.  457.  His  works  fill  four  vols,  folio,  reprinted  in  ten 
parts,  8vo,  by  Schulze  (Halle,  1768 — 1774),  and  consist  of  Commentaries  on  many 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  whole  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  a  History 
of  the  Church  from  A.  D.  325  to  A.  D.  429,  in  five  books ;  a  Religious  History, 
being  lives  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Desert;  the  Eranistes,  a  Dialogue  against  Eutych- 
ianism ;  a  Concise  History  of  Heresies,  together  with  orations  and  a  large  number 
of  letters,  etc.,  etc. 

Theodoret  belonged  to  the  Antiochian  school,  —  a  school  thus  far  little  studied 
by  modern  theologians.  To  the  same  school  also  belonged  Theodorus,  Bishop 
of  Mopsuestia,  Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  etc.,  all  UuiversaUsts. 

In  one  of  his  Orations  on  Providence  (tenth),  as  quoted  by  Prof.  Cone,  he  uses 
this  language:  "Wherefore  he  (Christ)  says  elsewhere,  'Now  is  the  judgment 
of  this  world,  now  shall  the  Prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out.'  For  now  that  judg- 
ment has  been  established,  he  shall  be  condemned  and  ejected  from  his  sovereignty, 
as  one  who  has  unjustly  withstood  me.  Then,  teaching  that  he  would  free 
from  the  power  of  death  not  only  his  own  body,  but  at  the  same  time,  the  entire 
nature  of  the  human  race  {pasaii  ton  anthropon  ten  phusi?i),  he  presently  adds, 
'  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me ; '  for  I  will 
not  suffer  what  I  have  undertaken,  to  raise  the  body  only,  but  I  will  fully  accom- 
plifih  the  resurrection  to  all  men.  For  it  was  for  this  that  I  came,  and  assumed 
the  form  of  a  servant,  and  as  a  lamb  before  its  shearer,  I  opened  not  my  mouth. 
The  blessed  Paul  also  speaks  to  the  same  effect,  writing  to  the  Colossians,  and 
through  them  to  all  men :  '  And  you,  being  dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncircum- 
cision  of  your  flesh,  hath  he  quickened  together  with  himself,  having  forgiven  you 


248  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

we  are  not  informed.  It  does  not  appear,  however, 
that- any  of  the  party  were  arraigned,  nor  their  tenets 
condemned.  We  naturally  suspect  that  their  faith 
had  always  lingered  around  the  churches  where 
Origen  preached,  and  where  Alexander,  Theoctistus, 
and  John  presided ;  and  there  is  some  reason  to 
suppose  that  it  continued  to  exist  in  the  country 
till  it  broke  out,  as  we  shall  learn,  sixty  or  seventy 
years  afterwards,  and  spread  through  a  large  part  of 
Palestine. 

But,  with  a  single  exception  that  will  be  noticed 
at   the    close,  we    seek   in  vain,  in   the 

A.  D.  450  to  500.  •      1  i?    xi  J.  A.  I? 

remainder  ot  the  present  century,  tor 
any  traces  of  the  doctrine,  at  least  within  the  bounds 
of  the   Roman   Empire.     It   had   grown   unpopular. 


all  trespasses,'  etc.  From  this  we  learn  that  he  has  paid  the  debt  for  us,  and 
blotted  out  the  handwriting.that  was  against  us,  and  having  done  these  things,  he 
quickened  together  with  himself  the  entire  nature  ofmen.^' 

The  resurrection  of  the  entire  nature  of  man  is  his  resurrection  into  the  higher 
life  —  into  the  image  of  the  heavenly  —  into  the  spiritual  perfectness  of  immor- 
tality. 

Prof.  Cone  says  of  Theodoret:  ''He  gives  this  higher  spiritual  view  of  the  res- 
urrection (anastasis)  in  his  Commentary  on  Eph.  i.  10:  'For  through  the  dispen- 
sation or  mcarnation  of  Christ,  the  nature  of  men  arises '  (anistatai).  or  is  resurrected, 
'  and  puts  on  incomiption.^  He  does  not  say  the  bodies  of  men,  but  the  '  nature' 
(phusis).is  resurrected.  In  his  further  comments  on  this  sublime  passage,  '  that 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times  he  might  gather  together  in  one  all 
things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are  on  earth,'  he  says,  '  and 
the  visible  creation  shall  be  liberated  from  corruption,  and  shall  attain  incor- 
ruption,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  invisible  worlds  shall  live  in  perpetual  joy, 
for  grief  and  sadness  and  groaning  shall  be  done  away.'''''' 

In  the  Comm.  on  Heb.  ii.  9,  ''that  he,  by  the  grace  of  God,  should  taste  death 
for  every  man,"  Theodoret  shows  that  Christ  destroys  the  power  of  death,  and 
secures  our  resurrection  to  incorruption  and  immortality,  and  quotes  Romana 
viii.  21,  and  affirms  that  the  angels  shall  be  filled  with  joy  at  the  completed  work 
of  Christ ;  '  For  if  they  rejoice  on  account  of  one  sinner,  much  more  shall  they  be 
filled  with  joy,  seeing  the  salvation  of  so  many  myriads?  For  all,  therefore,  he 
(Christ)  endured  his  saving  passion." 

The  length  of  this  note  must  be  excused.  It  could  not  be  shorter,  and  place  the 
facts  fairly  before  the  reader.  —A.  St.  J.  C. 


OF    UNIVEr.SALISM.  249 

For  though  it  had  not  been  judicially  branded  with 
the  indelible  mark  of  heresy,  save  when  it  embraced 
the  salvation  of  the  devil  and  his  angels,  yet  even  in 
its  restricted  form,  as  extending  only  to  the  restora- 
tion of  all  mankind,  it  had  been  pointed  out  as  an 
obnoxious  and  kindred  error ;  and  the  repose  of  the 
public,  as  well  as  the  quiet  of  the  individual, 
must  have  suggested  the  prudence  of  concealment. 
Even  the  familiar  name  of  Origenism  almost  wholly 
disappears  during  this  period.^  We  may,  indeed, 
discover  a  favorable  disposition  in  the  ecclesiastical 
historians,  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theodoret ;  of 
whom,  the  two  first  defended  the  reputation  of  its 
former  advocates,  and  the  last  neo^lected  to  insert 
it  in  his  general  catalogue  of  heresies.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  it  appears  that  Antipater,  Bishop  of  Bostra 
in  Arabia,  undertook  to  refute  the  Apology  of  Pam- 
philus  and  Eusebius  for  Ongen ;  and  that,  about  the 


1  To  this  period,  if  not  to  a  later,  may  perhaps  be  assigned  the  anonymous 
Apology  for  Origen  in  Jim  books,  which  Photius  describes  (Biblioth.,  Cod.  117), 
without  fixing  its  date.  According  to  him,  it  was  of  little  value.  The  author,  it 
appears,  mentionei  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  Dionysius  the  Great,  and  even 
Demetrius,  as  witnesses  in  favor  of  Origen ;  and  he  strove  pai  ticularly  to  defend 
Pamphilus  and  Eusebius,  which  shows  that  it  was  after  they  had  been  reproached 
for  their  Apology,  perhaps  by  Jerome,  perhaps  by  Antipater.  He  also  acknowledged 
and  maintained  Origen's  doctrine  of  pre-existence  and  some  other  heterodox  notions ; 
but  he  denied  that  Origen  had  been  guilty  of  the  following  errors  charged  upon 
him :  "  That  the  Son  is  not  to  be  invoked,  is  not  absolutely  good,  and  knows  not  the 
Father  as  he  knows  himself;  that  rational  natures  enter  into  brutes ;  that  there  is 
a  transmigration  into  different  kinds  of  bodies ;  that  the  soul  of  Christ  was  that 
of  Adam;  that  there  is  no  eternal  punishment  for  sinners,  nor  resurrection  of  the 
flesh;  that  magic  is  not  evil,  and  that  the  influence  of  the  stars  governs  our  con- 
duct; that  the  only  begotten  Son  will,  hereafter,  possess  no  kingdom;  that  the 
holy  angels  come  into  the  world  as  fallen  creatures,  not  to  assist  others ;  that  the 
Father  cannot  be  seen  by  the  Son ;  that  the  Cherubim  are  merely  the  thoughts  of 
the  Son ;  that  Christ,  the  image  of  God,  so  far  as  he  is  the  image,  is  not  the  true 
God." 


250  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

same  time,  a  council  at  Rome,  in  a.  d.   496,  either 
gave  or  followed  the  example.^ 

But  other  and  more  interesting  causes  may  be 
assigned  for  the  silence  which  pervades 
the  ecclesiastical  writings  of  this  period, 
with  regard  to  Universalism.  There  is  no  wonder  it 
should  have  been  overlooked,  or,  if  known  to  exist, 
that  it  should  have  been  suffered  to  pass  unnoticed, 
when  subjects  far  different,  and  of  the  most  distract- 
ing nature,  engrossed  the  attention  of  all  Christen- 
dom. The  Roman  Empire  in  the  West  was  going 
to  wreck  amidst  the  boisterous  and  conflicting  waves 
that  rolled  in  upon  it  from  the  fierce  North ;  and  it 
finally  sank,  under  the  repeated  assaults  of  the 
barbarians,  in  the  year  476.  Odoacer,  King  of  the 
Heruli,  enjoyed  the  spoils,  and  stretched  his  sceptre 
over  all  Italy.  Other  conquerors  advanced  from 
the  exhaustless  regions  of  barbarism,  and,  in  their 
turn,  wrested  the  power  from  the  recent  victors. 
From  Rome  to  Britain,  from  the  Danube  to  Africa, 
all  was  a  scene  of  anxiety  and  distress.  Amidst  the 
general  commotion,  the  church  beheld,  with  equal 
chagrin  and  fear,  the  exiled  Arians  return  along  with 
the  invading  hosts  of  their  barbarian  converts,  and, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Huns,  Goths,  and  Vandals, 
assume  the  pre-eminence  in  Italy,  Gaul,  and  the 
African  provinces.  The  Catholics  now  dreaded,  and 
they  sometimes  felt,  the  scourge  of  retribution ;  but 
they  still  retained  sufficient  spirit  to  wage,  at  intervals, 
a  polemical  contest  with  the  Pelagians  and  Semi- 
Pelagians.     The  Roman  pontiffs,  however,  had  other 

1  Huet,  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  ii.,  §§  24,  25. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  251 

subjects  of  interest,  in  the  terrible  and  shameful  con- 
tentions that  raged,  with  unprecedented  violence  and 
duration,  in  the  eastern  churches. 

The  empire  of  the  East,  though  little  annoyed  by 
foreign  enemies,  was  agitated  by  the  desperate  quarrels 
of  the  clergy,  who  have  left,  on  the  records  of  this  age, 
one  of  the  blackest  stains  that  disgrace  the  pages  of 
ecclesiastical  history.  The  great  archbishopric  of 
Egypt,  which  had  hitherto  maintained  its  superiority 
among  the  eastern  diocesses,  watched  with  an  envious 
eye  the  growing  influence  of  the  new  see  of  Constan- 
tinople, which  was  rapidly  ascending  to  a  rank  next 
to  that  of  Rome  ;  and  the  two  successive  prelates  of 
Alexandria,  who  inherited  the  vices  and  the  jealousy 
of  Theophilus,  had  already  shaken  Nestorius,  and  after 
him  FUivian,  from  the  episcopal  throne  of  the  rival 
city,  by  means  of  some  intricate  questions  concerning 
the  union  of  the  divine  and  human  natures  of  Christ. 
All  the  East,  from  the  Nile  and  the  Bosphorus  to  the 
Euphrates,  took  sides  for  a  long  contest,  in  which 
honor  and  freedom  were  staked,  and  deposition  and 
banishment  were  the  penalty  of  failure.  The  artifices, 
the  outrageous  injustice,  and  shameless  efirontery, 
which  prevail  in  the  most  degenerate  courts  in  times 
of  violent  faction,  disgraced  three  General  Councils,^ 
in  quick  succession,  and  procured  for  one  of  them, 
even  in  that  age,  an  appellation  which  truly  belonged 
to  all.  The  Assembly  of  Rohhey^s.  The  indignant 
spectator  gladly  turns  from  these  deplorable  scenes,^ 

1  At  Ephesus,  in  A.  D.  431 ;  at  the  same  place,  in  A.  D.  449 ;  and  at  Chalcedon,  in 
A.  D.  451.  That  in  A.  D.  449  is  not  reckoned,  by  the  Catholics,  among  the  General 
Councils,  because  the  legates  of  the  Pope  were  excluded. 

2  Of  this  contest  Gibbon  (Decline  and  Fall,  etc.,  chap,  xlvii.)  has  given  a  de- 


252  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

and  we  may  only  remark,  that  before  the  close  of  this 
century,  the  Nestorian,  Eutychian,  and  Monophysite 
heresies  were  successively  condemned,  as  they  arose, 
and  that  amidst  riots,  intrigue,  bribery,  kicks  and 
blows,  was  settled  the  present  orthodox  faith  concern- 
ing the  two  natures  of  Christ :  that  his  divinity  and 
humanity  are  most  intimately  united  in  one  person, 
while  they  are  nevertheless  distinct. 

Near   the    close    of  the    century  we    find   a  single 
instance  of  Universalism,  in  the  remote 

About  A.  D.  500.  /»  A/r  ^         •  i 

country,  however,  oi  Mesopotamia,  and 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Roman  Empire.  At 
Edessa,  about  seventy  miles  east  of  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  twenty-six  north-west  of  the 
ancient  Haran,^  the  abbot  Stephau  Bar-Sudaili 
presided  over  a  cloister  of  monks,  and  maintained  a 
distinguished  reputation  among  those  Christians  who 
held  the  simple  unity  of  the  divine  and  human 
nature  of  Christ.  But  deviating,  at  length,  from  the 
common  faith  of  his  brethren,  he  proceeded  to 
teach  that  future  punishments  will  finally  come  to  an 
end ;  that  wicked  men  and  devils,  having  been 
purified,  will  obtain  mercy ;  and  that  all  things  will 
be  brought  into  unity  with  God,  so  that,  as  St. 
Paul  expresses  it,  he  shall  become  all  in  all.^ 
Whether  he  succeeded,  to  any  extent,  in  propagating 
this  doctrine  among  the  churches  of  Mesopotamia  and 

Bcription  to  the  life,  which,  though  sUghtly  marked  with  his  infidel  irony,  seems 
well  supported,  and  does  not  differ  materially  from  the  narrative  of  the  Catholic 
Fleury.   (Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxv.  and  onwards.) 

1  See  Buckingham's  Travels  in  Mesopotamia,  etc.,  chap,  lii.— v. 

2  Assemani  Biblioth.  Orient.,  torn.  ii..  pp.  30 — 33,  291.  See,  too,  Neander'a  re- 
marks, Allgcmeine  Geschichte  der  Christlich.  Religion,  u.  8.  w.  2n.  Band  3te. 
Abtheil.,  §§  793—795. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  253 

S}Tia,  we  are  not  informed.  We  only  know  that  it 
soon  called  forth  the  complaints  of  some  of  his 
brethren,  who  stigmatized  it  as  heresy  ;  ^  and  that  he 
left  Edessa,  and  went  into  Palestine, — perhaps,  to 
associate  with  the  Origenists  there. 

Nothing  remains  but  to  close  with  a  passing  notice 
of  the  Manicheans.  Under  this  appellation,  which 
had  now  grown  somewhat  indefinite,  may  be  com- 
prehended about  all  the  Gnostic  Christians  of  this 
century;  for  the  Priscillianists,  who  were  numerous 
in  Spain,  and  a  few  Marcionites,  scattered  in  various 
parts,  were  often  classed,  and  not  very  improperly, 
with  the  more  genuine  followers  of  Mani,  who  lurked 
in  every  quarter  of  Christendom.  All  of  them  had 
been  led,  by  their  intercourse  with  the  Roman  world, 
to  modify  their  general  system,  and  to  omit  some  of 
their  fables  ;  but  they  always  adhered  to  their  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  two  original  Principles,  the  distinct 
causes  of  good  and  evil.  On  one  solitary  point  we 
may  prefer  their  views  to  those  entertained  by  a  large 
part  of  the  orthodox  ;  they  contemplated  the  Deity  in 
the  unchangeable  character  of  universal  and  perfect 
benevolence.  This  important  sentiment,  together 
with  their  fanciful  notion  concerning  the  divine  emana- 
tion of  all  souls,  would  naturally  incline  them  to 
expect  the  eventual  recovery  of  human  nature  ;  but 
how  far  they  approached  towards  this  conclusion  does 
not  distinctly  appear.  They  still  retained  enough  of 
their  oriental  peculiarities  to  render  them  intolerable 
to  the  Greek  and  Roman  sects ;  and,  while  the  cruel 

1  Aflsemani  Bib.  Orient.,  torn,  i.,  p.  303;  torn,  ii.,  pp.  30—33. 


254  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

laws  of  persecution  compelled  them  to  the  most  care- 
ful concealment,  the  sharp-sighted  zeal  of  the  bishops 
and  governors  often  detected  them  through  all  their 
disguises. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  255 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

FROM  A.   D.   500  TO  A.   D.   554. 

The  opening  scene  of  our  narrative  lies  in  the 
barren  solitude  between  Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem  on 
the  west,  and  the  sunken  coast  of  the  Dead  Sea,  or 
Lake  Asphaltites,  on  the  east.  The  wild  and  austere 
features  of  desolation,  which  pervade  this  mountainous 
desert,  will  readily  occur  to  every  one  who  has 
attentively  studied  the  geography  of  Palestine.  But 
it  can  scarcely  be  accounted  a  useless  interruption, 
if  we  pause  here  to  take  a  more  careful  and  particular 
view  of  a  region  so  full  of  interest,  and  which  retains 
to  this  day  nearly  the  same  appearance  it  wore  in  the 
sixth  century. 

Beginning  our  survey  at  the  north-eastern  extremity, 
and  standing  on  some  elevated  spot,  if  such  there  be, 
in  the  fields  adjacent  to  the  once  flourishing  Jericho, 
we  should  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  an  uneven 
plain,  of  great  length  and  considerable  breadth.  Its 
fertility  departed,  ages  ago,  with  the  banished  tribes, 
and  left  little  remains  on  the  parched  surface,  except 
a  kind  of  spiny  grass,  and  a  few  detached  groves  and 
plantations.  Two  leagues  to  the  east  the  plain  is 
divided  by  the  reedy  and  shrub-covered  banks  of  the 
Jordan,  whose  turbid  waters  hasten  along  through  a 
narrow  channel  towards  their  entrance  into  the  Dead 


256  THE    ANCIENT   EISTORY 

Sea.  If  we  turn  around,  so  as  to  face  the  north,  we 
behold  the  level  country  lose  itself  in  the  distance. 
But  close  at  hand  appears  the  miserable  village  of 
Arab  huts,  which  occupy  a  little  space  on  the  site  of 
the  ancient  Jericho;  and  several  spots  of  beautiful 
vegetation,  here  and  there  improved  into  gardens, 
mark  the  course  which  the  streams  from  Elisha's 
Fountain,  a  little  distant,  still  maintain  through  the 
surrounding  barrenness.  If  we  cast  our  eyes  to  the 
west,  the  huge,  precipitous  mountain  of  Quarantania, 
at  the  distance  of  only  three  miles,  stands  full  before 
us,  and  lifts  to  heaven  those  naked  cliffs,  whence, 
tradition  says,  the  tempter  showed  our  Saviour  all  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world.  Looking  past  the  southern 
side  of  the  mountain,  we  discover  a  little  farther  off, 
in  the  way  to  Jerusalem,  the  wild  congregation  of 
barren  hills  that  form  the  boundary  of  the  plain. 
Eising  just  behind  the  first  range,  are  seen  tops  of 
rifted  and  shapeless  mountains,  among  whose  deep 
and  tremendous  ravines  lies,  hidden  from  our  view, 
the  Desert  of  the  Temptation.  Far  in  the  rear, 
beyond  a  succeeding  tract  of  less  elevation,  and  of 
less  sterility,  we  might  perhaps  descry,  through  some 
fortunate  opening,  the  low,  triple  summits  of  Mount 
Olivet,  at  the  distance  of  eighteen  miles  to  the  south- 
west, shutting  out  the  city  of  Jerusalem  from  the 
eastern  prospect. 

As  we  turn  round  to  the  left,  from  the  quarter  of 
Maunt  Olivet,  with  our  backs  upon  Jericho,  the  eye 
still  ranges  along  the  broken  mass  of  hills,  a  few 
miles  southward,  where  the  plain  terminates  at  their 
bases,  or  is  invaded  by  their  more  advanced  and  sep- 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  257 

arate  crags.  Beyond  them,  we  catch  the  glimpse  of 
remoter  emhiences,  appearing  here  and  there  above 
the  horizon,  and  by  their  dismal  whiteness  betraying 
the  solitude  and  decay  which  reign  in  the  interior. 
Traversing,  with  a  sidelong  glance,  the  successive 
ridges  down  to  the  left,  as  they  approach  the  Dead 
Sea,  we  perceive  their  height  gradually  increasing  to 
the  very  brink,  where  they  suddenly  fall  off,  to  make 
room  for  the  bed  of  the  lake.  The  lake  itself  may 
be  seen,  still  farther  around  to  the  eastward,  coming 
up  into  the  limits  of  the  plain ;  and  nothing  but  an 
intervening  promontory  shuts  out,  from  our  eye,  the 
whole  expanse  of  waters  spreading  southward  to  un- 
discernible  distance. 

From  our  post  of  observation  it  is  but  five  or  six 
miles,  over  a  sandy  tract,  to  the  nearest  part  of  the 
Dead  Sea;  and  if,  quitting  the  fields  of  Jericho,  we 
now  proceed  thither,  and  follow  the  shore  down  to 
the  south,  we  come  at  length  to  the  mountainous 
border  already  surveyed.  Here  we  enter  on  a  wide 
beach,  which  runs  the  whole  remaining  lenglh,  per- 
haps, of  the  lake,  between  the  margin  of  the  waves 
and  the  lofty  battlement  of  cliffs  on  the  west.  Ad- 
vancing along  this  desolate  valley,  we  traverse  heaps 
of  sand,  and  patches  of  dry  mud,  covered  thick  with 
salt;  and  sometimes  a  solitary  and  stunted  shrub 
shakes  the  dust  from  its  scanty  foliage,  in  the  wind. 
On  our  right,  we  see  the  towering  masses  of  rock  still 
bearing  onward,  but  frequently  broken  by  huge  chasms 
that  wind  in  many  intricacies  through  their  heavy 
range.  The  dreary  lake  now  spreads  full  before  us 
to  the  south  ;    but  its  extremity  is  beyond  the  reach 


258  THE   ANCIENT    HISTORY 

of  the  eye.  To  the  east,  however,  we  see  its  con- 
tracted breadth,  at  the  distance  often  or  fifteen  miles, 
bounded  by  the  dark,  and  to  appearance,  perpendicu- 
lar mountains  of  Arabia,  which  stand  on  the  opposite 
shore  like  a  stupendous  wall.  Not  a  solitary  peak 
seems  to  break  the  uniformity  of  their  continuous 
summit ;  we  only  perceive  slight  inflections,  here  and 
there,  as  though  the  hand  of  the  painter,  who  drew 
this  horizontal  line  across  the  sky,  had  sometimes 
trembled  in  the  bold  execution. 

After  following  the  wide  strand  or  valley  for  six  or 
eight  miles  to  the  south,  we  may  turn  to  the  right, 
and  seek  our  way  up  the  precipices.  Arrived  at  the 
summit  of  the  range,  the  whole  country,  as  far  as 
Mount  Olivet  in  the  north-west,  the  hills  of  Bethle- 
hem in  the  West,  and  those  of  Tekoa  in  the  south- 
w^est,  bursts  at  once  in  desolate  majesty  upon  our 
sight.  Plains  and  narrow  glens  without  verdure  or 
inhabitant,  hills  whose  aged  rocks  are  themselves 
decaying  into  dust,  sharp  ridges  and  misshapen  points 
in  the  distance,  fill  up  the  scene.  Throughout  a  large 
part  of  this  tract  the  spirit  of  religious  madness,  of 
fanatical  seclusion,  might  find  accommodations  in  the 
profound  labyrinths  channelled  out  between  solid  clifis, 
and  in  numerous  caverns,  some  of  them  almost  inac- 
cessible. Even  close  around  the  summit  on  which  we 
stand  we  may  look  down  into  chasms  that  sink  to  the 
very  base. 

If  we  look  to  the  north,  the  plain  of  Jericho  ap- 
pears ;  if  to  the  south,  the  concourse  of  mountains 
stretches  oflT  beyond  the  outlet  of  the  Cedron,  and 
finally  fades  in  the  prospect  amidst  the  vast  Desert  of 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  259 

Ruba.  Below  us,  to  the  west,  extends  a  considera- 
bly wide  plain,  through  which,  in  ancient  times,  lay 
the  road  from  Jericho  to  Hebron.  Descending  from 
the  heights  and  crossing  this  open  space  westwardly, 
our  course  runs  among  little  hillocks  of  chalk  and 
sand,  and  some  scattered  patches  of  herbage  ;  till,  at 
the  end  of  three  miles,  we  come  to  the  boundary. 
Here  we  begin  to  climb  through  the  narrow  gorges  of 
another  chain  of  mountains,  white,  arid,  and  dusty ; 
and  not  a  solitary  shade,  not  a  plant,  not  even  the 
last  effort  of  vegetation,  a  single  tuft  of  moss,  meets 
the  eye  as  we  proceed.  Four  or  five  miles  in  the 
same  direction  brings  us  to  the  edge  of  the  long,  tre- 
mendous chasm,  through  which,  in  the  rainy  season, 
gushes  the  torrent  Cedron,  on  its  south-eastward 
course  from  Jerusalem  to  the  Dead  Sea.  Throu2rh  a 
sudden  opening,  that  city  itself  may  be  descried, 
looking  like  a  confused  heap  of  rocks,  nearly  a  dozen 
miles  to  the  north-west ;  and  the  naked  summits  that 
rise  on  every  quarter  above  us  command  a  prospect 
of  the  eastern  lake.  Proceeding  now  a  small  dis- 
tance up  the  channel  of  the  Cedron,  we  discover,  in 
its  very  bed,  and  two  or  three  hundred  feet  below  us, 
the  ancient  monastery  of  St.  Sabas,  surrounded  with 
numerous  cells  in  the  precipices,  and  still  occupied  as 
a  convent.^ 


iFor  the  account  of  this  region,  see  Relandi  Palaestina  Hlustrata;  Pococke>3 
Description  of  the  East,  vol.  ii.,  part  1,  pp.  30 — 45;  Sandys'a  Travels,  hook  iii., 
MaundrelPs  Journey  to  Jerusalem;  Dr.  E.  D.  Clark's  Travels  through  Greece, 
Egypt,  and  the  Holy  Land,  chap.  17,  18;  and  Chateaubriand's  Travels,  part  iii., 
Several  striking  hints  may  be  gathered  from  Cyrilli  Scythopolitani  Vita  S.  Sahae, 
inter  Coteleri  Mon.  Eccl.  Graecaj,  torn.  iii.  See,  also,  aa  the  best  work  on  Palea- 
tine,  Robinson's  Biblical  Researches,  etc. 


260  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  this  great 
solitude  had  long  been  peopled  with  monks. 
Many  lauras,  or  collections  of  recluse  cells 
and  caverns,  were  prepared  in  different  quarters  ;  and 
monasteries,  or  regular  convents,  were  erected  in 
other  parts.  Of  the  former,  the  most  famous,  at  this 
period,  was  the  laura  of  St.  Sabas,  the  remains  of 
which  we  have  just  surveyed.  It  was  founded,  less 
than  twenty  years  before,  by  the  distinguished  abbot 
of  that  name ;  and  lave  or  six  thousand  monks  had 
already  gathered  in  the  deep  channel  of  the  Cedron, 
under  the  protection  of  his  reputed  miracles  and 
sanctity.  A  very  successful  struggle,  of  more  than 
fifty  years,  against  every  natm-al  mode  of  human 
existence,  had  conferred  on  Sabas  a  venerable  pre- 
eminence over  the  whole  desert ;  and  a  mild  and 
patient  temper  gave  his  authority  a  sort  of  fatherly 
character.  With  these  qualifications,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  scrupulous  exactness  of  his  faith,  the 
wretchedness  of  his  appearance,  and  the  supposed 
gifts  of  commanding  rain  from  heaven,  and  of  shutting 
the  mouths  of  wild  beasts,  should  make  him  known 
abroad,  in  that  age,  as  "the  light  and  ornament  of  all 
Palestine." 

Between  the  years  501  and  506,  an  old  ^  difficulty 
broke  out  anew  in  the  midst  of  his  own 
laura.  Forty  of  his  monks  became 
greatly  dissatisfied ;  and  he,  who  seldom  contended 
with  opposition,  left  the  place  and  retired  to  a  cave 
near  Scythopolis.  After  a  while  he  returned;  but 
finding  the  malcontents  increased  now  to  the  number 

1  Vit.  SabsB,  cap.  19. 


OF   UNIVEKSALISM.  2G1 

of  sixty,  and  grown  utterly  irreconcilable,  he  again 
departed.  This  sudden  and  unexpected  absence 
gave  his  enemies  occasion  to  flatter  themselves,  at 
least  to  report,  that  he  was  devoured  by  wild  beasts  ; 
and,  going  to  Jerusalem,  they  entreated  Elias,  the 
bishop  of  that  city,  to  appoint  them  another  abbot. 
Their  report,  however,  did  not  gain  credit ;  and  Elias 
was  by  no  means  disappointed,  when,  some  time 
afterwards,  he  beheld  Sabas  himself,  with  several 
disciples  from  his  new  retirement,  enter  the  Holy  City, 
on  the  anniversary  festival  of  the  Dedication  of  the 
Temple.  The  bishop  solemnly  adjured  him  to  return 
to  his  laura,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  monks  there, 
commanding  them  to  receive  him  with  honors,  and 
submit  to  his  authority.  But  when  Sabas  arrived  and 
produced  the  letter  in  public,  the  disafiected  rose  in 
rebellion,  assailed  one  of  the  buildings  in  their  wrath, 
and  overthrew  it  into  the  torrent.  The  rioters,  to  the 
number  of  sixty,  then  took  their  course  over  the  hills, 
south-westwardly,  to  the  laura  of  Succa,  probably 
about  eight  or  ten  miles  distant.^  Applying  there 
in  vain  for  admittance,  they  proceeded  onwards,  till 
they  entered  the  deep  valley  under  the  southern  side 
of  the  hill  on  which  stood  the  ruined  villas^e  of  Tekoa. 
Here,  finding  a  little  water,  and  some  old  forsaken 
cells,  they  took  up  their  abode,  and  called  the  place 
Nova  Laura,  or  the  new  laura. ^     Having  no  church, 

1  The  laura  of  Succa  was  not  far  from  Tekoa,  either  to  the  north  or  to  the  south 
(compare  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  36,  with  Vit.  Cyriaci,  inter  Cotelerii  Mon.  Eccl.  GraecaB, 
torn.  iv.  pp.  117, 118) ;  but  in  which  of  these  directions  cannot  be  determined.  The 
foiTu  of  the  expression,  however,  in  Vit.  Sabae,  seems  to  intimate  that  it  was 
towards  the  laura  of  Sabas  from  Tekoa. 

2  I  think  Xova  Laura  must  have  been  in  what  is  now  called  Wady  Jehar.  (See 
Robinson's  Bib.  Researches,  vol.  ii.,  p.  185.)  It  was  in  a  deep  valley,  not  far  to  the 
south  of  Tekoa. 


262  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

they  were  obliged,  for  a  while,  to  hold  their  public 
exercises  in  an  old  one  at  Tekoa,  dedicated  to  the 
ancient  prophet  Amos,  once  an  inhabitant  of  this 
village.^  Sabas,  having  obtained  information  of  the 
place  of  their  retreat,  visited  them  with  necessary 
supplies  ;  and  procuring  afterwards,  from  Elias,  at 
Jerusalem,  a  sum  of  gold  for  the  purpose,  he  built 
them  a  church,  and  dedicated  it  in  a.  d.  507. 

A.  D.  507.         TX-        1  n 

His  beneficence  seemed   to  reconcile  them; 
and   they  allowed   him   to    place  over   their   laura  a 
superior,  who  governed  it  in  quiet  for  seven  years. ^ 
On  the  death  of  this  overseer,  his  successor  ad- 
mitted,  throuofh    io^norance  it   is    said,  four 

A.  D.  514.  .  . 

Origenists  ;  of  whom  the  chief  were  Nonnus, 
whose  earlier  history  is  entirely  unknown,  and  one 
Leontius  of  Bj^zantium,  or  Constantinople.  Their 
distinguishing  tenet  appears  to  have  been  the  pre- 
existence  of  human  souls  ;  but  to  this  it  seems  we 
must  add  that  of  universal  restoration.^     Both  these 


1  Amos  i.  1. 

2  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  33—36. 

3  That  Nonnus  and  Leontius  were  Universalists  is  not  absolutely  certain,  though 
very  probable.  I  here  subjoin  the  best  evidence  I  have  found  of  the  fact :  1. 
Symeon  Mctaphrastes,  a  Greek  writer  of  the  tenth  century,  who  recomposed  the 
lives  of  the  saints  from  the  original  documents,  but  who  is  by  no  means  indisputji- 
ble  authority,  adduces,  in  his  Life  of  Cyriacus  (Cotelerii  Mon.  Eccl.  Graecae,  torn, 
iv.,  pp.  117,  118),  the  testimony  of  Cyrill,  of  Scythopolis,  a  credible  witness,  that 
Nonnus  and  Leontius  avowed  the  doctrines  of  pre-existence  and  universal  resto- 
ration. 2.  Cyrill  himself,  who,  by  the  waj',  was  a  monk  of  Sabas's  laura,  and  a 
cotemporary  of  Xonnus  and  Leontius,  invariably  represents  them  as  teaching  pre- 
existence;  and  he  also  says  (Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  36)  that  they  derived  it  from  Origen, 
Evagrius,  and  Didymus.  Kow,  in  the  doctrine  of  these  fathers  the  two  notions 
of  i)re-existence  and  restoration  were  so  inseparably  connected,  as  the  beginning 
and  end  of  their  system,  that  whoever  followed  them  in  one  could  hardly  avoid 
adopting  the  other.  3.  Domitian,  Archbishop  of  Galatia,  a  convert  and  patron  of 
Nonnus  and  Leontius,  was  certainly  an  advocate  of  both  these  notions  (Facundi 
Hermianensis  Defens.  Trium  Capit.  inter  Sinnondi  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  pp.  384,  385); 
and  Facundus,  a  cotemporary,  observes  that  it  was  particularly  on  account  of  these 


OF    UNIVERSALIS^!.  2(53 

opinions,  however,  remained  undiscovered,  at  least 
unreproved,  for  about  six  months ;  when  a  new 
superior,  the  third  in  succession,  being  appointed 
at  Nova  Laura,  soon  detected  the  alarming  doctrine, 
and,  by  the  authority  of  Elias  of  Jerusalem,  expelled 
the  believers.  They  retired  to  other  parts  of  the 
country,  and  propagated  their  sentiments 
in  silence.  Two  or  three  years  afterwards, 
Elias  himself  was  deposed  amid  some  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical revolutions  which,  in  the  East,  yet  followed  the 
Nestorian  controversy  of  the  preceding  century ;  and 
when  John  succeeded  to  the  bishopric  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Origenists  came  and  asked  to  be  restored  to  their 
laura.  But  he,  being  informed  by  Sabas  of  their 
heresy,  denied  their  request.  Leontius,  indeed,  was 
received,  at  length,  into  the  great  laura  of  Sabas 
himself;  but,  the  moment  he  became  known,  the  aged 
father  drove  him  away. 

Better  fortune,  however,  awaited  the  outcasts  :  Not 
many  years  afterwards,  one  Mamas,  on  succeeding 
to  the  care  of  Nova  Laura,  admitted,  it  seems  without 
hesitation,^  Nonnus,  Leontius,  and  their  party  to  the 
cordial  fellow'ship  of  the  brotherhood.  There  fol- 
lowed such  an  increase  of  Origenism  in  the  country 
as  to  produce  considerable  uneasiness  ;  and  an  oppor- 
tunity soon  oflfered  of  introducing  the  affair  to  the 
attention  of  the  ambitiously  orthodox  emperor  Jus- 
tinian.   Some  public  grievances  rendering  it  necessary 

tenets  that  his  party  was  accused.  Several  other  circumstances  might  be  men- 
tioned in  favor  of  their  Universalism ;  and  nothing,  so  far  as  I  know,  can  be  found 
to  the  contrary. 

1  Cyrill  says  (Vita  Sabse)  that  Mamas  did  not  know  their  sentiments ;  but  how 
could  he  be  ignorant,  after  the  previous  disturbances  ? 


264  THE    ANCIEIST    HISTORY 

to  send  an  agent  to  the  court  of  Constantinople,  the 
bishops  of  Palestine  unanimously  deputed  Sabas, 
whose  sanctity  had  long  been  venerated  in  the  im- 
perial palace,  and  known  throughout  all  the  East. 
He  accordingly  visited  the  capital ;  and,  having  ac- 
complished his  business,  was  about  to  take 
his  leave,  when  the  doting  emperor  humbly 
asked  what  revenues  he  should  bestow  on  the 
monasteries  and  lauras  of  the  desert,  in  order  to 
secure  their  prayers  for  himself  and  his  government. 
"Grant  the  petitions  that  I  have  brought,"  replied 
the  abbot,  "and  in  recompense  God  will  add  to 
your  dominions,  Africa,  Eome,  and  the  whole  of  the 
western  empire ;  upon  one  condition,  however,  — 
that  you  deliver  the  churches  from  the  three  heresies 
of  Arius,  Xestorius,  and  Origen."  The  obedient 
emperor  loaded  him  with  gifts,  promised  whatever  he 
desu^ed,  and  anathematized  those  heresies ;  but 
whether  he  then  issued  any  special  decree  against 
them  does  not  appear.^ 

Sabas  died  at  his  laura,  in  the  end  of  the  year  531, 
soon  after  his  return  from  Constantinople ; 
and  the  Origenists  of  Nova  Laura,  feeling 
themselves  relieved  from  the  oppression  of  his  great' 
authority,  began  to  propagate  their  doctrine  with  less 
reserve.  Their  success  was,  if  possible,  more  than 
proportioned  to  their  zeal.  In  a  short  time  they 
converted  all  the  most  learned  in  their  OA\ai  cells, 
placed  their  partisans  over  some  of  the  neighboring 
monasteries,    spread   their   opinions   through   several 

1  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  36;  and  70—74.    Fleury's  Eccl.  History,  book  xxxiii.,  chap.  3. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  265 

large    communities    of    monks    in    the    desert,    and 
established  them  even  in  the  great  laura  of  Sabas. 

Among  their  adherents,  perhaps  among  the  new 
converts,  were  two  persons,  introduced  now  for  the 
first  time  to  our  notice,  who  afterwards  rose  to  consid- 
erable eminence,  and  bore  a  distinguished  part  in  the 
ecclesiastical  history  of  the  period.  Domitian  was 
abbot  of  a  monastery  in  a  desert ;  and  Theodorus  As- 
cidas  was  deacon,  or  one  of  the  principal  officers,  of 
Nova  Laura.  Both  were  Origenists  ;  both,  probably, 
Universalists,  —  such,  at  least,  did  Domitian  avow 
himself.^  Going,  about  this  time,  to  Constantinople, 
they  were  accompanied  by  Nonnus  and  Leontius  ;  and, 
through  the  recommendation  of  the  latter,  who  seems 
to  have  had  some  influence  in  his  native  city,  our  two 
adventurers  obtained  the  patronage  of  Eusebius,  a  fa- 
vorite bishop  at  court.  By  his  means,  they  were  then 
introduced  to  the  emperor  himself;  and,  concealing 
their  sentiments  and  peculiar  attachments,  they  so  far 
won  the  partiality  of  Justinian,  that  he  placed  them  over 
the  two  extensive  bishoprics  in  Asia  Minor.  Domi- 
tian was  elevated  to  that  of  Galatia,  and  immediately 
ordained  at  its  metropolitan  city,  Ancyra ;  Theodorus 
Ascidas,  at  Cesarea,  in  the  large  and  influential  see 

1  Facundus,  acotemporary  author,  says(Defens.  Trium.  Capital,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  4, 
inter  Sirmondi  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  pp.  384,  3S5  :  "  Domitian,  formerly  Bishop  of  Ancyra 
in  Galatia,  writing  a  book  to  Pope  Vigilius,  complained  of  those  who  contradicted 
the  doctrine  of  Origen,  that  human  souls  existed  before  the  body  in  a  certain 
happy  state,  and  that  all  who  are  consigned  to  everlasting  torments  shall  be  re- 
stored, together  with  the  de%il  and  his  angels,  to  their  primeval  blessedness. 
Domitian  also  asserts  that  '  they  have  even  anathematized  the  most  holy  and  re- 
noicned  doctors,  on  account  of  those  things  ichich  icere  agitated  in  favor  of  pre- 
existejice  and  imiversal  restoration.  This  they  have  done  under  pi'etence  of  con- 
demniiig  Oingen;  but  in  recdity  condemning  cdl  the  saints  who  were  before  him, 
and  who  have  been,  after  kim.^^^  This  book  of  Domitian  was  written,  probably, 
about  the  vear  546,  or  a  little  after. 


266  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

of  Cappadocia,  was  seated  on  the  same  episcopal  throne 
which  had  been  honored  by  the  ancient,  and  perhaps 
more  worthy,  fathers,  Firmilian  and  Basil  the  Great. 
Neither  of  the  new  prelates,  it  would  seem,  spent 
much  of  their  time  in  their  respective  dioceses ;  but, 
following  the  fashion  of  that  age,  resorted,  among  a 
crowd  of  other  bishops,  to  the  court  of  Constantino- 
ple, and  there  engaged  in  the  intrigues  of  the  palace 
and  of  the  church.  Theodorus  long  maintained  a  con- 
siderable ascendency  over  the  measures,  though  not 
over  the  faith,  of  the  royal  polemic  himself,  and  fre- 
quently perverted  the  imperial  authority  to  purposes, 
which,  if  discovered,  would  have  been  instantly  con- 
demned. Amidst  the  honors  to  which  he  had  been 
advanced,  and  the  splendor  with  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded, he  did  not  forget  his  old  associates  in  the 
solitude  of  Palestine,  but  continued  to  exert  in  their 
behalf  all  the  influence  he  dared  to  employ  in  such  a 
cause.  Nor  were  they,  on  their  part,  unconscious  of 
the  increased  advantages  they  might  derive  from  the 
countenance,  however  cautiously  granted,  of  two 
powerful  friends  at  court.  Emboldened  by  the  pat- 
ronage, and  encouraged  by  their  good  fortune,  the 
Origenists  labored  with  redoubled  energy,  and  in  a 
short  time  succeeded  in  difi'using  their  doctrine  through 
the  whole  of  Palestine  ;  an  undertaking  which  was  the 
more  readily  accomplished  on  account  of  the  former 
prevalence  of  Origenism  in  the  country.^ 

About  five  years  after  the  death  of  Sabas,  his  second 
successor,  Gelasius,  on  being  elected  over  the  great 
laura,    determined    to    check    the   prevailing   heresy 

1  Vit.  SabSB,  cap.  77—83. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  267 

among  his  own  flock ;  and,  to  this  end,  he  consulted  a 
few  of  his  yet  orthodox  brethren,  and  appointed  the 
Treatise  of  Antipater  of  Bostra  against  Origen,  to  be 
read  publicly  in  the  church.  But  this  indignity  only 
provoked  a  disturbance  :  and  Gelasius  soon 
found  it  necessary,  in  prosecuting  his  scheme, 
to  expel  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  opposition,  among 
whom  was  one  of  his  deacons.  It  was  too  late,  how- 
ever, for  violent  measures ;  the  expulsion  of  their 
leaders  roused  the  spirit  of  the  rest,  and  forty  others 
were  soon  afterwards  driven  away.  The  outcasts  re- 
paired immediately  to  Nova  Laura,  where  they  en- 
joyed the  protection  of  Nonnus,  Leontius,  and  their 
brethren,  and  assisted  in  propagating  their  faith  among 
the  various  monasteries  in  the  neighborhood. ^  The 
next  year,  Eusebius,  the  episcopal  courtier  who  had 
introduced  Domitian  and  Theodorus  to  Justinian,  hap- 
pened at  Jerusalem ;   and  Leontius,  in  com- 

.11  />  A.  D.  538. 

pany  with  the  outcasts  from  the  great  laura, 
embraced  the  opportunity  to  carry  before  him  a  com- 
plaint against  the  abbot,  for  their  expulsion.  The 
haughty  bishop  assumed  the  seat  of  judgment ;  and, 
sending  for  Gelasius,  ordered  him  either  to  receive  the 
Origenists,  or  else  to  expel  their  accusers.  The  timid, 
or  perhaps  politic,  abbot  returned,  upon  this,  to  the 
laura  of  Sabas,  and,  choosing  the  latter  alternative, 
dismissed  six  of  his  orthodox  monks,  probably  with 
their  own  consent.  These,  however,  went  directly  to 
Antioch,  related  to  Ephraim,  the  powerful  archbishop 

1  Cyrill's  story  (Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  84)  of  their  hostile  expedition  for  the  purpose 
of  destroying  the  great  laura,  of  the  supernatural  darkness  which  blinded  and 
misled  them  so  that  they  could  not  find  the  well-known  place,  etc.,  is  incredible, 
unless  we  admit  with  him  the  miraculous  interference  of  the  deceased  Sabas. 


268  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

of  that  city,  the  afikir  of  Origenism  in  Palestine,  and 
showed  him  the  books  of  Antipater  of  Bostra  against 
the  doctrine.  Ephraim  immediately  called  a  provin- 
cial synod  at  Antioch,  and  procured,  for  the  first  time 
since  the  days  of  Theophilus  and  Jerome,  an  anathema 
against  the  heresy ;  but  on  what  particular  points  is 
unknown. 

When  the  news  of  this  procedure  reached  Palestine, 
the  Orificenists  were,  of  course,  alarmed.  Leontius  had 
sailed  for  Constantinople  ;  but  Nonnus  went  to  Peter, 
the  present  Bishop  of  «Terusalem,  and  importuned  him 
to  erase  the  name  of  Ephraim  from  the  sacred  diptychs, 
or  official  registers  of  bishops  in  fellowship  and  com- 
munion. Leontius  at  Constantinople  also  exerted  his 
influence  to  procure  the  excommunication  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Antioch;  and  Domitian  and  Theodorus 
strove  to  compel  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  to  execute 
the  proposed  measure.  Already  was  there  a  strong 
disafiection  against  Peter  among  the  monks  of  the 
desert ;  and,  to  screen  himself  from  the  indignation 
which  it  was  easy  to  foretell  the  course  he  had 
adopted  would  arouse,  he  contrived  to  procure  some 
of  the  orthodox  abbots  to  write  a  tract  against  Ori- 
genism, and  in  favor  of  Ephraim  of  Antioch.  This 
was  accordingly  composed,  and  presented  to  him ; 
and  Peter  immediately  directed  it,  together  with  some 
"writings  of  his  own,  pointing  out  the  heresies  and  the 
disorders  of  the  Origenists,  to  the  Emperor  Justinian 
at  Constantinople.  The  monks  entrusted  with  these 
documents  arrived  at  the  imperial  city,  attached  them- 
selves to  the  deacon,  Pelagius,  legate  from  the  Pope 
of  Rome,  and  an  enemy  to  Theodorus  ;    and,  by  their 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  269 

united  exertions,  soon  succeeded  in  laying  the  matter 
in  form  before  the  emperor.^ 

Justinian,  who  had  now  sat  about  a  dozen  years  on 
the  throne  of  the  eastern  empire  was  one  of  the  few 
sovereiofns  whose  rulinsf  ambition  has  been  to  shine  in 
theological  disputes,  and  to  acquire,  by  superior  or- 
thodoxy and  austere  mortifications,  the  proud  epithet 
of  The  Pious.  Nothing  could  be  more  gratifying, 
than  this  reference  of  the  afiair  of  Origenism  to  his 
judgment  and  decision.  He  lost  no  time,  therefore, 
in  ordering  a  long  Edict  to  be  drawn  up,  addressed  to 
Mennas,  Archbishop  of  Constantinople, 

1  ^  A.  D.  539—540. 

and  pubhshed  as  early  as  the  year  540. 
"We  are  told,"  says  he,  "of  some  who,  not  having 
the  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes,  have  forsaken 
the  truth,  without  which  there  is  no  salvation,  and 
departed  from  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  and  of 
the  Catholic  fathers,  by  adhering  to  Origen,  and  main- 
taining his  impious  notions,  which  are  like  those  of 
the  Arians,  Manicheans,  and  other  heretics."  He 
then  proceeds  to  recount,  in  a  formal  catalogue, 
and  under  six  heads,  the  errors  attributed  to  Ori- 
gen:  "1.  That  the  Father  is  greater  than  the  Son, 
and  the  Son  greater  than  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  superior  to  other  spirits ;  and  that  the  Son 
cannot  behold  the  Father,  nor  the  Holy  Ghost  see  the 
Sou.  2.  That  the  power  of  God  is  limited,  because 
he  can  create  and  govern  only  a  certain  number  of 
souls,  and  a  certain  quantity  of  matter ;  that  every 
species  of  being  was  co-eternal  with  the  Deity ;  that 
there  have  already  been,  and  that  there  will  hereafter 

1  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  85.  and  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiii.,  chap.  3,  4. 


270  THE    ANCIENT   HISTORY 

be,  several  worlds  in  succession,  so  that  the  Creatoi' 
has  never  been  without  creatures.  3.  That  rational 
spirits  were  clothed  with  bodies,  only  for  their  punish- 
ment ;  and  that  the  souls  of  men,  in  particular,  were  at 
first  pure  and  holy  intelligences,  who,  becoming  weary 
of  divine  contemplation,  and  inclining  to  evil,  were 
confined  in  earthly  bodies,  as  a  retribution  and  chas- 
tisement of  their  former  follies.  4.  That  the  sun,  the 
moon,  the  stars,  and  the  waters  above  the  heavens, 
are  animated  and  rational  creatures.  5.  That,  in  the 
resurrection,  human  bodies  will  be  changed  into  a 
spherical  shape.  6.  That  wicked  men  and  devils  will 
at  lensrth  be  discharo-ed  from  their  torments,  and  re- 
established  in  their  original  state."  Each  of  these 
six  errors,  Justinian  attempts  to  refute  by  authori- 
ties from  the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers  ;  but  he  directs 
his  labors  more  particularly  against  the  third,  con- 
cerning pre-existence,  and  against  the  sixth,  concern- 
ing the  restoration.  Then,  addressing  INIennas,  he 
adds,  "  We  therefore  exhort  you  to  assemble  all  the 
bishops  and  abbots  of  Constantinople,  and  oblige 
them  to  anathematize  in  writing  the  impious  Origen 
Adamantius,  together  Avith  his  abominable  doctrines, 
and  especially  the  articles  we  have  pointed  out. 
Send  copies  of  what  shall  be  transacted,  to  all  other 
bishops  and  to  all  superiors  of  monasteries,  that  they 
may  follow  the  example ;  and,  for  the  future,  let 
there  be  no  bisliops  nor  abbots  ordained,  who  do  not 
first  condemn  Origen  and  all  other  heretics,  according 
to  custom.  We  have  already  written  thus  to  Pope 
Vigilius,  and  to  the  rest  of  the  patriarchs."  After  a 
collection  of  heretical  extracts  from  the  books  of  Ori- 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  271 

gen,  the  emperor  subjoins  nine  anathemas  ;  six  against 
the  forementioned  errors ;  and  three  against  the  fol- 
lowing on  the  incarnation.  "1.  That  the  human 
soul  of  Jesus  Christ  existed  long  before  it  was  united 
to  the  Word ;  2.  That  his  body  was  formed,  in  the 
Virgin,  before  its  union  either  with  the  Word,  or  with 
his  own  soul;  and  3.  That  he  will,  hereafter,  be  cru- 
cified for  the  salvation  of  the  devils."  To  conclude, 
there  is  a  tenth  anathema  against  the  person  of  Origen 
and  against  those  of  his  followers.^ 

This  sweeping  decree,  which  aimed  full  against 
Universalism,  went  forth,  of  course,  as  a  law  of  the 
realm ;  and  Justinian's  ambition  to  shine  in  the  church 
conspired  with  his  natural  jealousy  as  a  sovereign,  to 
ensure  the  rigid  enforcement  of  his  orders.  Accord- 
higly,  the  bishops  then  residing  at  Constantinople 
were  immediately  assembled  in  council,  by  the  Patri- 
arch Mennas,  to  subscribe  the  Edict ;  and  soon  after- 
wards. Pope  Vigilius  at  Rome,  Zoilus  on  the  archi- 
opiscopal  throne  of  Alexandria,  Ephraim  at  Antioch, 
and  Peter  at  Jerusalem,  obeyed  the  mandate  and  fol- 
lowed the  example.  Even  Domitian  of  Ancyra  and 
Theodorus  of  Cappadocia,  though  favorites,  were 
obliged  to  yield  to  the  imperial  command;  and, 
rather  than  suffer  expulsion,  they  affixed  their  names 
to  the  anathemas  which  condemned  some  of  their  own 
sentiments.^ 

1  See  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Pat.,  vol.  v.,  art.  Hist,  of  Fifth  General  Council.  And 
Flem^'s  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiH.,  chap.  4.  I  know  not  where  to  look  for  an 
entire  copy  of  this  very  important  document,  Justinian's  Edict  to  Mennas,  except 
in  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn,  iii.,  p.  243;  and  this  valuable  collection  is  out  of  my 
reach. 

2  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiii.,  ch.  4.  And  Du  Pin's  Biblioth.  Patrum,  vol.  v., 
art.    Hist,  of  Fifth  Gren.  Council. 


272  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

In  Palestine,  however,  there  were  some  bold  and 
determined    enousrh    to    withstand    the 

A.  D.  540  to  546.  ,  ,1         .  .  ,  ,  -^.    , 

emperor  s  authority.  Alexander,  Bishop 
Abyla,^  who  is  known  only  by  the  part  he  bore  in 
this  afiair,  refused  to  subscribe  the  decree ;  and 
Nonnus,  together  with  his  party  in  general,  remained 
faithful  to  their  cause,  at  the  expense  of  exclusion 
from  the  Catholic  communion,  and  of  banishment  from 
Nova  Laura.  But  their  powerful  patron,  Theodorus 
of  Cappadocia,  soon  heard  of  their  treatment ;  and, 
sending  for  certain  agents  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem 
who  resided  at  Constantinople,  he  angrily  threatened 
to  deprive  their  bishop,  Peter,  of  his  see,  unless  he 
should  give  satisfaction  to  the  outcasts,  and  restore 
them  to  their  former  standing.  At  the  same  time,  he 
sent  to  Nonnus  and  his  adherents,  advising  them  to 
propose  to  their  bishop  a  sort  of  compromise,  in  which 
he  should  only  pronounce  some  indefinite  form  of 
words,  annulling,  in  general  terms,  all  anathemas 
which  were  not  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God.  As  the 
real  and  manifest  intent,  how^ever,  of  this  equivocal 
formality,  was  to  imply  a  censure  of  the  emperor's 
late  Edict,  Peter  at  first  refused ;  but,  fearing  the 
dangerous  influence  of  Theodorus  at  court,  he  at 
length  privately  pronounced  the  sentence,  readmitted 
the  Origenists  into  their  laura,  and  finally  appointed 
two  of  their  leading  members  his  suifragans,  or 
bishops  in  immediate  attendance  on  his  person. 
Emboldened  by  the  success  of  this  attempt,  the  parti- 


*  There  were  several  cities  or  villages,  by  the  name  of  Abyla,  or  Abila,  in  the 
northern  part  of  Palestine  (See  Relandi  PalaBst.  must.),  and  this  was  probably  one 
of  them. 


OF    UNIVERSALISM.  273 

saus  of  Nomius  did  not  hesitate  openly  to  preach  their 
doctrine  from  house  to  house.  It  would  have  been 
honorable  to  them  had  they  proceeded  no  farther. 
But,  remembering  with  resentment  the  indignities 
they  had  suffered  from  the  orthodox,  they  unhappily 
turned  back  upon  them  the  tide  of  contempt  and 
abuse.  Disputes  and  violent  altercations  were 
quickly  succeeded  by  blows,  which  fell,  of  course,  on 
the  Catholic  or  weaker  party,  for  whom  it  soon  be- 
came unsafe  to  appear  abroad,  especially  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem.  Finding  their  numbers  unequal  to  the 
quarrel,  they  procured  a  reinforcement  of  a  savage 
race  of  monks  from  the  banks  of  the  Jordan.  When 
these  arrived  at  the  Holy  City,  and  joined  the  ortho- 
dox host,  an  engagement  ensued ;  but  the  Origenists 
succeeded  at  last  in  putting  them  all  to  flight,  and  in 
driving  them  as  far  as  the  great  laura  of  Sabas. 
Here,  the  vanquished  retreated  into  a  fortified  place, 
and  their  pursuers  were,  in  their  turn,  obliged  to  fly, 
after  one  of  the  most  valorous  of  their  enemies  had 
fallen,  the  only  victim  of  the  combat. 

The  public  had  long  been  too  familiar  with  scenes 
of  this  shameful  character,  to  regard  them  with  the 
abhorrence  they  merited ;  and  it  was  probably  the 
urgent  motive  of  self-preservation,  alone,  which  in- 
duced the  remnant  of  the  orthodox,  in  the  present 
exigency,  to  seek  the  prevention  of  these  disorders. 
Accordingly,  Gelasius,  the  abbot  of  the  great  laura, 
set  out  on  a  journey  to  Constantinople,  in  order  to 
lay  the  affair  before  Justinian.  But  Theodorus  of 
Cappadocia,  having  notice  of  his  arrival,  contrived 
to  prevent  all  access  to  the   emperor,  so  that,  after 

18 


274  THE   ANCIENT  HISTORY 

several  ineifectiial  attempts,  Gelasius  was  obliged  to 
depart  without  accomplishing  his  purpose.  Ee turn- 
ing towards  Palestine,  he  died  at  a  small  city  in 
Phrygia ;  and  with  him  expired,  for  a  season,  the 
hopes  of  the  orthodox  party  in  the  desert  of  Judea. 
For,  when  the  monks  of  the  great  laura  went  to 
Jerusalem  to  ask  the  appointment  of  a  new  abbot, 
the  suffragans  of  Peter,  imitating  the  cunning  of  The- 
odorus,  drove  them  away ;  and  immediately  all  the 
monastic  communities  in  that  region,  yielding  to  the 
strong  popular  current,  were  carried  over,  by  flattery 
or  by  fear,  to  the  side  of  Origenism.  Even  the  great 
laura  itself  submitted,  soon  afterwards,  to  an  abbot 
appointed  by  the  dominant  party  ;  and  the  few  ortho- 
dox leaders  in  the  place  forsook  their  long-venerated 
cells,  and  sought  other  retreats.  But  the  very  day 
on  which  the  triumphant  Origenists  saw  the  feeble 
remnant  of  their  opposers  retire,  called  them  also  to 
mourn  the  sudden  and  unexpected  death 
of  Nonnus,  at  Nova  Laura.  This  loss  was 
the  more  severely  felt,  as  Leontius,  the  other  chief 
of  the  party,  had  died,  a  year  or  two  before,  at  Con- 
stantinople. What  was  the  real  character  of  these 
two  persons,  and  what  their  abilities,  we  have  no 
satisfactory  means  to  ascertain.  That  they  had  con- 
siderable influence  among  the  monks  is  evident ;  and 
that  they  were  feared  and  hated  by  their  opposers  is 
certain.  Should  we  judge  of  them,  however,  by  their 
cotemporaries,  we  could  boast  neither  of  their  intel 
ligcnce,  nor  of  their  peaceable  and  Christian  temper. 
Nonnus  had  the  satisfaction  of  leaving  their  cause, 
though   proscribed    by   the    government,    in   a  very 


OF   UNIVERSALTSM.  275 

prosperous  condition  throughout  Palestine.  At  the 
great  laura  of  Sabas,  however,  the  orthodox  regained 
an  ascendancy,  seven  months  after  his  death,  and 
appointed  a  new  abbot ;  who  was  succeeded,  in  less 
than  a  year,  by  Conon,  another  of  their  most  enter- 
prising leaders.  The  loss  of  this  important  place 
seemed,  soon  afterwards,  more  than  made  up  to  the 
Origenists,  by  a  fortunate  acquisition  on  their  part : 
Peter,  who  had  always  opposed  them,  died 
about  this  time ;  and,  by  their  influence, 
their  friend,  Macarius,  was  chosen  his  successor  in 
the  bishopric  of  Jerusalem.  But  their  affairs  re- 
mained, for  five  or  six  years,  unstable  and  fluctuat- 
ing. A  sedition  followed  the  election  of  the  new 
prelate,  and  Justinian  commanded  him  to  be  expelled 
from  his  see.  What  was  still  more  injurious  to  their 
interests,  the  Origenists  themselves  had  abused  their 
success,  and  suffered  prosperity  to  cherish  a  factious 
spirit,  which  divided  them,  on  some  trivial  question, 
into  hostile  parties.^ 

Meanwhile  an  artful  plot  was  contrived  and  put  in 
execution,  at  Constantinople  ;  the  particu- 

T  ^       1   •    1      -j^   •  J  1    i  1  A.  D.  546  to  553. 

lars  01  which  it  is  necessary  to  relate,  al- 
though they  have  no  other  bearing  on  the  doctrine  of 
Universal  Salvation,  than  as  they  led,  eventually,  to 
the  assembling  of  the  Fifth  General  Council.  Theo- 
dorus  of  Cappadocia  had  not  forgotten  the  malicious 
interference  of  Pelagius,  in  procuring  the  late  impe- 
rial Edict  against  Origen  and  his  doctrines,  and  he 
resolved  to  retaliate  upon  his  enemy,  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  some  unsettled  affairs  in  the    old   Nestorian 

1  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  86—90,  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiii.,  ch.  20,  40. 


276  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

controversy.  He  happened  to  belong  to  a  party  that 
hated  the  memory  of  the  General  Conncil  of  Chalce- 
don,  held  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  ;  while  the 
Roman  legate,  on  the  contrary,  zealously  supported 
its  authority  and  cherished  its  reputation.  To  impair 
its  credit,  and  to  vex  its  advocates,  Theodorus  con- 
trived to  procure  the  condemnation  of  some  of  the 
fathers  whom  it  had  approved.  Among  those  of  this 
class  he  found  the  name  of  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia ; 
and  ignorant,  probably,  that  he  had  been,  in  his  day, 
a  Universalist,  and  knowing  only  that  he  was  cele- 
brated as  an  opposer  of  Origen,  he  thought  that,  by 
anathematizing  him,  he  should  accomplish,  at  once, 
two  important  objects, — that  of  avenging,  in  some 
degree,  the  late  indignities  inflicted  on  the  memory  of 
his  own  favorite  author ;  and  that  also  of  bringing 
disgrace  on  the  obnoxious  council. 

Accordingly,  he  cautiously  suggested  to  his  patron, 
the  emperor,  that  he  might  easily  effect  a  work  in 
which  he  was  laboriously  engaged,  the  reconciliation 
of  a  certain  party  in  the  church,  merely  by  con- 
demning Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  Theodoret  of 
Cyrus,  and  Ibas  of  Edessa,  together  with  the  writings 
they  had  left  in  favor  of  Nestorianism.  Justinian  had 
not  sufficient  penetration  to  discover  the  subtlety  of 
his  adviser ;  and,  with  his  characteristic  officiousness, 
assumed  the  authority  of  pronouncing,  for  the  whole 
church,  upon  one  of  the  most  hazardous  topics  he 
could  have  selected.  But  it  was  foreseen  that,  when 
he  had  once  promulgated  his  decision,  his  theological 
vanity  would  be  security  against  all  retraction,  and  his 
pride  of  power  a  guaranty  of  his  perseverance  and  final 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  277 

victory.  Accordingly,  Theodorus  felt  already  assured 
of  success,  when  he  received  a  command  to  draw  up 
an  Edict  in  the  Emperor's  name,  condemning  the 
fathers  in  question,  together  with  their  obnoxious 
wi'itings  ;  which  have  since  been  known  by  the  title 
of  the  Three  Chapters.  This  Edict  was  published 
A.  D.  546,  in  the  form  of  a  Letter  addressed  to  the 
whole  Catholic  church ;  and  all  bishops  wqre  required 
to  subscribe  its  anathemas.  Most  of  them,  apparently 
against  their  conscience,  complied,  after  some  hesi- 
tation, and  were  liberally  rewarded ;  but  such  as 
maintained  their  integrity  and  refused  were  of  course 
banished.  A  violent  and  general  contention  followed 
for  several  years.  Books  were  written  on  both  sides. 
The  Roman  pontiff  himself  continually  shuffled  be- 
tween fear  of  the  sovereio^n's  venofeance,  and  re«:ard 
for  the  consistency  of  the  church.  The  passions 
of  men  grew  inflamed,  till  all  Christendom  was  so 
agitated  that  the  usual  expedient  became  necessary 
in  order  to  allay,  or  rather  to  give  vent  to,  the  fermen- 
tation.^ 

On  the  fourth  of  May,  a.  d.  553,  the  Fifth  General 
Council  was  therefore  opened  at  Constantino- 
ple, under  the  eye  of  Justinian,  by  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  bishops  from  the  Greek  and  African 
churches ;  and  it  was  continued,  with  the  accession 
of  fourteen  other  bishops,  till  the  second  day  of  the 
following  month.  Everything  appears  to  have  been 
managed,  as  was  expected,  according  to  the  emperor's 
pleasure.  The  Three  Chapters  were  condemned  with 
extravagant  expressions  of  zeal ;    and  the  person  of 

<•  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiii.,  ch.  21—43. 


278  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia  was  anathematized,  not  for 
his  Universalism,  but  for  his  alleged  Nestorianism. 
Thus  far  the  artful  Bishop  of  Cappadocia  saw  his  plan 
go  into  comple'te  effect.  But  he  could  not  stop  the 
ponderous  machinery  which  he  had  put  in  motion ; 
and  he  was  destined  to  feel,  before  the  close  of  its 
operations,  that  his  cunning  had  overreached  itself. 
While  he  was,  in  reality,  the  prime  but  covert  mana- 
ger, steadily  controlling  the  results,  by  first  suggest- 
ing to  Justinian  the  course  to  be  pursued,  and  then 
dictating,  in  his  name,  to  the  council,  the  subject  of 
Origenism,  entirely  foreign  from  the  business  of  the 
session,  is  said  to  have  been  suddenly  brought  before 
the  obsequious  conclave,^  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  to 
the  contrary.  The  emperor's  attention  had  lately 
been  directed  to  it  by  some  incidents  in  Palestine ; 
certain  deputies  from  Jerusalem,  with  Conon,  the 
Abbot  of  St.  Sabas,  at  their  head,  urged  its  immedi- 
ate consideration ;  and  Justinian  was  by  no  means 
backward  to  show  his  zeal  and  faithfulness  in  the 
affair.  He  despatched,  it  is  thought,  a  message  to 
the  assembled  bishops,  exhorting  them  to  examine  the 
doctrine  of  "the  impious  Origen,"  and  to  condemn 
him  and  his  followers,  together  with  their  tenets.  As 
a  form  which  they  might  use  in  framing  their  decrees, 

1  Here  I  follow  Huet  (Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect,  lii.,  §  14 — 16),  Fleury 
(Eccl.  Hist.,  book  xxxiii.,  ch.  40,  51),  and  the  testimony  of  antiquity,  in  preference 
to  the  authority  of  the  modern  historians,  who  contend  that  the  affair  of  Origen, 
Didyraus,  and  Evagrius  was  not  examined  in  this  Council,  but  onlj'  in  that  which 
was  called  together,  at  Constantinople,  by  Mennas,  on  receiving  Justinian's  Edict, 
in  A.  D.  540.  Without  incuxTing  the  charge  of  pretending  to  decide  this  question, 
I  may  say.  that  the  condemnation  of  Origen,  Didymus,  and  Evagrius,  having  been 
ahnost  invariably  attributed  to  the  Fifth  General  Council,  has  been  received  in 
the  Catholic  church  with  the  deference  which  is  paid  to  the  decisions  of  such  a 
body. 


OF   UNIVERSALISM.  279 

he  sent  them  the  long  Edict  which  he  had  published, 
thirteen  or  fourteen  years  before,  with  its  catalogue 
of  heresies  and  of  anathemas. 

On  the  receipt  of  these  papers,  the  fathers  of  the 
council,  it  seems,  hastened  to  pay  obedience  to  the 
request ;  and  the  following  decree  served  at  once  to 
commend  them  to  their  master,  and  to  betray  to  the 
eye  of  the  historian  their  servility  to  the  imperial 
dictation.  "  WTioever  says,  or  thinks,  that  the  souls 
of  mankind  jDre-existed  as  intellectual,  holy  natures, 
but  that  growing  weary  of  divine  contemplation  they 
degenerated  to  their  iDresent  character,  and  were  sent 
into  these  bodies  for  the  purpose  of  punishment,  let 
him  be  anathema.  Whoever  says,  or  thinks,  that  the 
human  soul  of  Christ  pre-existed,  and  became  united 
to  the  Word  before  its  incarnation  and  nativity  of  the 
blessed  Virgin,  let  him  be  anathema.  Whoever  says, 
or  thinks,  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  first  formed  in 
the  womb  of  the  holy  Virgin,  and  that  the  Word  and 
his  pre-existent  human  soul  were  afterwards  united 
with  it,  let  him  be  anathema.  Whoever  says,  or 
thinks,  that  the  divine  Word  is  to  become  like  the 
angelic  and  celestial  powers,  and  thus  be  reduced  to 
an  equality  with  them,  let  him  be  anathema.  Who- 
ever says,  or  thinks,  that  in  the  resurrection  human 
bodies  are  to  be  of  a  round,  globular  form,  or  who- 
ever will  not  acknowledge  that  mankind  are  to  rise  in 
an  erect  posture,  let  him  be  anathema.  Whoever 
says  that  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  the  waters 
above  the  heavens,  are  certain  animated  or  intelligent 
powers,  let  him  be  anathema.  AYhoever  says,,  or 
thinks,  that  Christ  is  to  be  crucified  in  the  future 


280  THE   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

world  for  the  demons,  as  he  was  m  this  for  men,  let 
him  be  anatjiema.  Whoever  says,  or  thinks,  that  the 
power  of  God  is  limited,  and  that  it  has  created  all 
that  it  was  able  to  embrace,  let  him  be  anathema. 
TMioever  says,  or  thinks,  that  the  torments  of  the 
demons  and  of  impious  men  are  temporal,  so  that  they 
will,  at  length,  come  to  an  end,  or  whoever  holds  a 
restoration  either  of  the  demons  or  of  the  impious, 
let  him  be  anathema.  Anathema  to  Origen  Adaman- 
tius,  who  taught  these  things  among  his  detestable 
and  accursed  dogmas  ;  and  to  every  one  who  believes 
these  things,  or  asserts  them,  or  who  shall  ever  dare 
to  defend  them  in  any  part,  let  there  be  anathema :  In 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  to  whom  be  glory  forever. 
Amen."^ 

In  addition  to  these  fulminating  sentences,  an  act 
of  condemnation  is  said  to  have  been  passed,  also, 
upon  those  writings  of  Didymus  of  Alexandria  and  of 
Evagrius  Ponticus,  which  advocated  pre-existence  and 
universal  restoration.^ 

The  decree  of  a  General  Council  was  unalterable, 
and  fixed  the  faith,  at  least  the  creed, 
of  the  Catholic  church,  forever.  It 
only  remains  that  we  mention  the  efiects  of  this  de- 
cision on  the  Origenists  of  Palestine.  When  the  con- 
demnatory acts  were  sent  to  that  province,  they  were 
subscribed  by  all  the  prelates  except  Alexander  of 
Abyla,  who  was  accordingly  expelled  from  his  bish- 
opric. The  monks  of  Nova  Laura  also  refused  obe- 
dience and  withdrew  from  the  general  communion. 

iSumma  Conciliorum,  Auctorc  M.  L.  Bail.,  torn.  1,  p.  285,  286,  edit.  Taris,  1672. 
2  Vit.  Sabse,  cap.  90. 


OF   tJNiVERSALlSM.  281 

The  new  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  that  see  during  the  late  council,  endeavored 
to  reclaim  the  dissenters ;  but,  at  the  end  of  eight 
months,  finding  all  persuasion  vain,  he  availed  himself 
of  the  emperor's  authority,  and  by  force  drove  the 
Origenists  out  of  the  country.^ 

1  Vit.  Sabae,  cap.  90.a 

*  With  the  highest  respect  for  the  learning  of  Dr.  Ballou,  we  must  nevertheless 
question  his  opinion  that  Universalism  was  condemned  at  this  council.  The  edict 
of  Justinian  to  Mennas,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  which  led  to  the  Synod  of 
A.  D.  544,  has  been  noticed  by  the  doctor.  There  is  little  reasonable  doubt  that 
the  condemnation  of  Origenism  (thus  of  Universalism)  by  this  Home  Synod, 
Svi'ooo?  evSriixovcra,  was  afterwards  ascribed  by  writers,  especially  Cyrillus  Scythop. 
in  Vita  S.  Sabae,  c.  90,  to  the  Fifth  (so-called)  Oeneral  Council,  held  A.  D.  553,  through 
confounding  the  two  —  both  having  been  held  at  Constantinople.  Vide  Du  Pin, 
Biblioth.  Pat.,  art.  5th  CEcum.  Con.  I,  v.,  with  whom  the  corrected  voice  of  his- 
tory is  in  substantial  agreement.  Comp.  Walch,  Ketzerhist,  vii.  660,  viii.  280; 
Le  Quien  Oriens  Christianus,  iii.  210.  Mosheim  says,  in  speaking  of  the  Council 
of  A.  D.  553,  cent.  vi.  p.  ii,  c.  iii,  §  xi.,  note,  ''We  do  not  find  in  the  acts  of  this 
council  any  one  which  condemns  the  doctrines  of  Origen.  It  is,  however,  gen- 
erally imagined  that  these  doctrines  were  condemned  by  this  assembly ;  and  what 
gave  rise  to  this  notion  was  probably  the  fifteen  Greek  canons  yet  extant,  in  which 
the  principal  errors  of  Origen  were  condemned,  and  which  arc  entitled  The  Canons 
of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  Fathers,  assembled  m  the  Council  of  Constantinople," 
that  is,  that  of  Mennas,  in  A.  d.  544.  According  to  Geiseler,  the  Fifth  General 
Council,  except  (as  a  matter  of  course)  perhaps  giving  a  general  approval  to  all 
imperial  degrees  before  issued,  took  no  notice  whatever  of  Origenism.  He  says, 
speaking  of  the  Synod  of  Mennas,  that  "  from,  it  proceeded,  without  doubt,  the 
fifteen  canons  against  Origen  (Prim.  ed.  Petr.  Lambecius  in  Comment,  bibl. 
August,  Vindob.  viii.  435,  ap.  Mansi  ix.  395),  though  their  title  favors  the  fifth 
(Ecumenical  Council."  Ch.  Hist.  v.  1,  478,  Hase,  Hist.  Ch.  Ch.,  seems  to  take  the 
same  ground.  Hagenbach,  Hist,  of  Doct.,  distinctly  refers  the  condemnation  to 
A.  D.  544  only.    Neander,  Hist.  Christ.  Rehg.  ^nd  Ch.,  does  the  same. 

The  Fifth  General  Council  was  really  called  in  the  interests  of  Origenism, 
through  the  influence  of  Theodoras  Ascidus,  Bishop  of  Caesarea,  in  Cappadocia, 
by  the  Emperor  Justinian.  It  was  not  designed  to  touch  Origenism,  but  to 
secure  the  authoritative  condemnation  of  the  "Three  Chapters,"  and  to  favor 
Monophysitism.  The  imperial  power  controlled  the  council,  though  it  was  pre- 
sided over  by  Eutychius,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  That  Origenism  was  con- 
demned, therefore,  at  this  council,  is,  to  say  the  least,  extremely  doubtful. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  also,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  whatever  the  Western 
and  Eastern  Churches  may  have  since  decided,  this  council  was  not  truly  cecu- 
menical.  It  was  no  more  so  than  the  late  Vatican  Council,  which  embraced  only 
the  cardinals,  patriarchs,  archbishops,  bishops,  etc.,  of  the  Roman  obedience. 
The  council  of  A.  d.  553  was  composed  of  Eastern  prelates,  and  was  governed  by 
an  Eastern  patriarch,  and  controlled  by  an  emperor  who  was  really  but  an  East- 


282  THE    ANCIENT   HISTOEY 


em  monarch.  Vigilius,  Pope  of  Rome,  positively  refused  to  recognize  it,  from  the 
first,  and  was  not  present  in  person  or  by  legate.  For  refusing  his  presence  and 
recognition,  he  was,  at  the  dictation  of  the  emperor,  excommunicated  by  the 
council.    But  that  did  not  make  the  council  oecumenical. 

If  General  Councils  are  authoritative  of  the  faith  of  the  church,  the  Fifth  (grant- 
ing it  oecumenical)  did  not  (we  think)  condemn  Universalism.  But  it  really  has 
no  claim  to  the  title  of  oecumenical,  —  certainly  not  in  any  such  sense  as,  for 
instance,  the  Council  of  Nice,  A.  D.  325,  See,  further  article  on  condemnation  of 
UniversaUam,  in  "  Univ.  Quart.,"  Oct.,  1864.  —A.  St.  J.  C. 


APPENDIX. 


FROM  A.   D.    554    TO   A.   D.    1500. 

Having  brought  the  history  of  Universal]  sm  down 
to  its  complete  and  authoritative  condemnation,  we 
may,  with  all  propriety,  close  the  regular  and  con- 
nected narrative  ;  especially  as  we  have  followed  it 
into  the  dim  twilight  preceding  the  long  age  of  dark- 
ness. But  as  curiosity  naturally  looks  onward,  with 
an  inquiring  eye,  through  the  gloomy  succession  of 
centuries  from  the  Fifth  General  Council  to  the  era  of 
the  Eeformation,  I  shall  here  annex  such  notices  of 
the  doctrine,  during  that  period,  as  have  occurred  to 
me. 

In  the  first  Lateran  Council,  convened  at  Rome,  by 
Pope   Martin   I.,  in   the   year    649,   against 

'n      •  T  A.  D.  649. 

those  who    asserted  but   one  will   in   Jesus 
Christ,    the   fathers    repeated   the    anathema   against 
Origen,  and  his  followers,  Didymus   and  Evagrius, 
who,  it   will   be   recollected,    had    been   condemned 
only  for  Universalism. 

The  Sixth  General  Council,  held  at  Constantinople 
in  A.  D.   680,  recognized  for  some  reason,         ^ 
the  condemnation  of  Origen,  Didymus,  and 

283 


284  APPENDIX. 

Evagriiis  ;  either  from  a  suspicion  that  the  heresy  was 
still  cherished,  or  else  from  a  casualty  in  the  form  of 
expression.  The  principal  business  of  this  council, 
convened  like  the  Lateran  against  the  Monothelites,  — 
a  sect  so  called  from  some  distinguishing  notionscon- 
cerning  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  — had  not  the  least 
connection  with  the  subject  of  Origenism.  Yet  one 
of  the  declarations  reads  thus  :  "  We  agree  with  the 
holy  and  universal,  or  general,  councils  in  all  things  ; 
especially  with  the  last  of  them,  the  fifth,  which  was 
assembled  in  this  city  against  Theodorus  of  Mop- 
suestia,  Origen,  Didymus,  and  Evagrius." 

The  Seventh  General  Council  also,  which  met,  a.  d. 
787,  at  Nice  in  Bithynia,  for  the  purpose  of 
defending  and  establishing  the  use  of  images, 
relics,  etc.,  in  churches,  has  left  on  its  records  a 
sentence  that  may  induce  a  suspicion  that  Universalism 
was  not  quite  extinct :  "  We  anathematize  the  fables 
of  Origen,  Didymus,  and  Evagrius." 

And  the  Eighth  General  Council,  at  Constantinople, 
in  A.  D.  869,  likewise  digressed  from  its 
proper  objects,  in  order  to  pronounce 
an  "anathema  against  Origen,  who  advanced  many 
errors;  and  against  Evagrius  and  Didymus,  who  are 
caught  in  the  same  abyss  of  perdition."  ^  This  coun- 
cil was  called  together  on  the  memorable  quarrel 
which  resulted  in  the  separation  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  church  ;  and  therefore  it  had  no  natural  concern 
with  the  fathers  here  condemned. 


1  For  the  sentences  extracted  from  the  Sixth,  Seventh,  and  Eighth  Councils, 
Bee  Hist,  de  I'Origenisme,  par  Louis  Doucin,  pp.  321,  322.  For  the  notice  of  the 
Lateran  Council,  see  Huetii  Origenian,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  sect.  iii.  17. 


APPENDIX.  285 

The  introduction  of  this  foreign  topic,  in  these 
successive  synods,  is  at  least  a  circumstantial  evi- 
dence that  it  was  not  altogether  accidental ;  and  that 
the  obnoxious  sentiments  were  thought  to  have  some 
abettors,  probably  in  the  eastern  church. 

This  indication  is  confirmed  by  a  circumstance  that 
happens  to  have  come  to  ourknowledo^e. 

r-i  *        1       •  ^  .1  A.  D.  713  to  730. 

Germanus,  Archbishop  of  Constantinople 
in  the  former  part  of  the  eighth  century,  published  a 
book,  we  are  told,  to  confute  "  the  heretical  doctrine 
that  the  demons  shall  be  restored  to  their  pristine 
state,  and  that  those  who  die  in  their  sins  shall,  after 
certain  punishments,  be  gathered  into  the  number  of 
the  blest.  This  impiety,  so  full  of  fables,  he  dis- 
proved, first,  by  the  words  of  the  Lord,  then  by  the 
apostolic  decrees  ;  to  which  he  adds  also  the  testimo- 
nies of  the  prophets,  which  show  clearly  that  as  the 
enjoyment  of  the  blest  is  eternal  and  inefiable,  so  also 
the  punishment  of  sinners  will  be  endless  and  infinite. 
And  not  only  by  these  testimonies  did  he  confound 
the  profane  and  poisonous  error,  but  also  by  those  of 
the  holy  fathers  ;  and  particularly  by  the  very  wi'it- 
ings  of  him  [Gregory  Nyssen]  whom  this  heresy  per- 
fidiously claimed  as  its  patron.  By  means  of  all 
these  authorities,  he  freed  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
body  from  that  scheme  of  fables  so  pernicious  to  the 
soul."  In  part  of  his  book,  Germanus  undertook  the 
impracticable  task  of  showing  that  the  ancient  father, 
Gregory  Nyssen,  was  not  an  advocate  of  Univer- 
salism.  The  occasion  of  this  bold  attempt  is  said  to 
have  been  "  because  that  they  who  favored  the  notion 
•that  the  demons  and  the  damned  might  be  delivered, 


286  APPENDIX. 

endeavored  to  mix  the  dark  and  pernicious  poison  of 
Origen's  dreams  with  Gregory's  luminous  and  sahi- 
tary  writings,  and  strove  secretly  to  add  an  heretical 
madness  to  the  virtue  and  renowned  orthodoxy  of 
him  whom  they  knew  to  be  distinguished  for  doctrine 
and  eloquence,  and  the  bright  reputation  of  whose 
sanctity  they  knew  was  talked  of  by  all."  We  are 
likewise  told  that  "  those  books  of  Gregory  which  the 
heretics  craftily  endeavored  to  bring  to  their  aid,  but 
which  Germanus,  the  advocate  of  the  truth,  had  pre- 
served uninjured  from  their  attempts,  were  The  Dia- 
logue  concerning  the  Soul;  The  Catechetical  Oration; 
and  the  book  concerning  a  Perfect  Life.''  ^ 

This  account,  taken  from  a  writer  of  the  ninth 
century,  who  was  one  of  the  most  renowned  ecclesi- 
astical critics  of  all  antiquity,  shows  that,  about  the 
time  of  Germanus,  the  heresy  of  universal  restoration 
made  some  noise  in  the  East. 

In  the  western  church  there  appeared,  among  sev- 
eral other  sectaries,  a  preacher  who  claims  our  notice. 
Clement,  a  native  of  Ireland,  seems  to  have  been  reg- 
ularly ordained  a  presb;yi;er,  or  minister,  in  the 
Romish  communion.  But  he  at  length  discarded  its 
superstitions,  renounced  its  authority,  and  rejected 
the  whole  mass  of  ecclesiastical  canons,  the  decrees 
of  the  councils,  and  all  the  treatises  and  expositions 
of  the  fathers  ;  reserving  to  himself,  probably,  as  the 
guide  of  his  faith,  the  Bible  alone,  which  was  now 
forbidden  the  people.  He  taught  that  Christ,  when 
he  descended  to  hell,  restored  all  the  damned,  even 

1  Photii  Bibliothec,  Cod.  233.    See  note  2,  page  169. 


APPENDIX.  287 

infidels  aud  idolaters ;  and  he  differed,  on  what  par- 
ticulars we  know  not,  from  the  Catholic  doctrine  con- 
cerning predestination.  Several  independent  congre- 
gations were  gathered,  under  his  ministry,  in  parts  of 
France  and  Germany ;  and  such  was  his  progress  as 
to  awaken  the  attention  of  both  the  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical powers.  In  a  council  of  twenty-three  bish- 
ops,   assembled   a.   d.   744,  at  Soissons    in 

A.  D.  711. 

France,  by  King  Pepin,  Clement  was  de- 
posed from  the  priesthood,  condemned  among  other 
heretics,  and  imprisoned.  Boniface,  Archbishop  of 
Mentz,  and  legate  of  the  Holy  See,  presided,  proba- 
bly, in  this  council ;  and  he  immediately  sent  to  the 
Pope  an  account  of  the  affair.  It  was  soon  dis- 
covered that  Clement  had  left  disciples  even  among 
the  lower  orders  of  the  clergy ;  and  in  a  council  of 
seven  bishops,  held  the  following  year,  by  Pope  Zach- 
ary,  at  Rome,  he  was  again  deposed  and  anathema- 
tized, together  with  his  followers,  in  case  they  should 
not  renounce  their  error.  Two  years  afterwards,  the 
Pope  advised  Boniface  to  call  a  council  in  his  neigh- 
borhood, and  ascertain  whether  Clement  and  certain 
other  heretics  would  submit  to  the  church ;  and,  in 
case  of  their  obstinacy,  to  send  them  to  Rome.  It 
does  not  appear,  however,  that  anything  further  was 
done  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  Clement  died  in  prison. 
Boniface  reported  that  he  was  guilty  of  adultery ;  ^ 
but,  as  some  such  accusation  was  the  customary 
expedient  of  the  Catholics   on  similar  occasions,  the 

1  Fleury's  Eccl.  Hist,  xlii.,  chap.  39,  50,  52,  53,  54,  58.  The  orthodox  enthusiast, 
Milner,  applauds  the  soul-saving  zeal  of  Boniface  on  this  occasion ;  and  com- 
mends the  discipline  inflicted  upon  Clement  and  his  associates.  See  his  Hist,  of 
the  Church,  cent,  viii.,  ch.  4. 


288  APPENDIX. 

story  is  unworthy  of  notice.  Mosheim  says,  that, 
"by  the  best  and  most  authentic  accounts,  Clement 
was  much  better  acquainted  with  the  true  principles 
and  doctrines  of  Christianity  than  Boniface  himself; 
and  hence  he  is  considered  by  many  as  a. confessor 
and  sufferer  for  the  truth,  in  this  barbarous  age."  ^ 
Priestley  also  thinks,  "it  is  probable  that,  if  his  senti- 
ments and  conduct  were  fully  known,  he  would  be 
ranked  with  the  most  early  reformers."^ 

The  greatest  scholar,  and  perhaps  the  most  philo- 
sophical genius  of  the  ninth  century,  was 
A.D.  D-  .  j^Y^^^  Scotus  Erigena,  a  native  of  Ireland, 
or  of  Scotland.  At  an  early  age  he  visited  Greece, 
especially  Athens,  and  studied  the  Oriental  as  well  as 
classic  literature.  On  his  return  he  was  invited  by 
Charles  the  Bald  to  the  court  of  France ;  where  he 
probably  continued  till  his  death,  notwithstanding  the 
accounts  of  his  removal  to  England,  on  the  request 
of  Alfred  the  Great,  to  take  charge  of  the  college 
which  that  prince  had  founded  at  Oxford.  His  favor- 
ite study,  it  appears,  was  philosophy,  in  which  he  fol- 
lowed the  doctrines  of  the  New  Platouism :  that  all 
things  proceeded  from  God,  and  will  eventually  retuni 
to  him.  He  distinguished  himself,  however,  as  an 
ecclesiastical  writer.  In  this  character  his  influence 
was  so  hostile  to  the  corrupt  doctrines  of  that  day, 
and  especially  to  the  papal  hierarchy,  that  the  court 
of  Eome  threatened  to  arraign  him.  He  wrote  against 
transubstantiation,  and  the  Augustinian  scheme  of 
predestination  ;  and  it  is  said  that  he  taught  the  opin- 

1  Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  viii.,  pt.  ii.,  chap.  5,  §  2. 

2  Priestley's  Hist,  of  the  Church,  period  xv.,  sect,  v.,  p.  181. 


APPENDIX.  289 

ion  of  Origen  concerning  the-  end  of  the  punishment 
of  the  damned,  and  the  final  restoration  of  all  fallen 
creatures  J  He  is  classed  among  the  mystic  philoso- 
phers and  theologians. 

From  about  the  year  850,  for  two  centuries  on- 
wards, both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  or  Latin 
churches  enjoyed,  within  their  respective  communions, 
the  golden  age  of  profound  ignorance  and  undisturbed 
orthodoxy.  One  of  the  most  learned  and  impartial 
of  the  Catholic  historians  says,  "In  this  age  of  the 
church  there  were  no  controversies  concerning  arti- 
cles of  faith,  or  doctrinal  points  of  divinity,  because 
there  were  no  heretics,  nor  other  inquisitive  persons, 
who  refined  upon  matters  of  religion,  or  undertook  to 
dive  to  the  bottom  of  its  mj^steries.  The  sober  part 
contented  themselves  with  yielding  implicit  faith  to 
whatever  the  churchmen  thought  fit  to  deliver  from 
the  pulpit ;  and  as  for  the  profligate  wretches,  they 
abandoned  themselves  to  gross  sensualities,  for  the 
gratification  of  their  brutal  appetites,  rather  than  to 
the  vices  of  the  mind,  to  which  none  but  ingenious 
persons  are  liable.  Therefore,  in  this  age  of  dark- 
ness and  ignorance,  the  church,  not  being  disturbed 
upon  account  of  its  doctrines,  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  suppress  the  enormities  which  abounded  with  re- 
gard to  discipline  and  manners."^  A  protestant  his- 
torian shall  describe  to  us  the  real  character  of  this 
church,    so    unmolested    by   eiTor,    at    this    period : 

1  As  authorities  for  Ms  Universalism,  the  Rev.  T.  J.  Sawyer  has  kindly  furnished 
me  with  the  following  references:  Doederlein,  Institut.  Theol.  Christ.,  vol.  li.,  p. 
202;  D.J.  Otto  Theiss  ueber  d.  hibl.  u.  kirch.  Lehnneinung  von  Ewigkeit  d. 
Hoellenstrafen,  s.  24. 

2  Du  Pin's  Ecel.  Hist.,  vol.  viii.,  ch.  6. 

19 


290  APPENDIX . 

"  Both  in  the  eastern  and  western  provinces  the  clergy 
were,  for  the  most  part,  composed  of  a  most  worth- 
less set  of  men,  shamefully  illiterate  and  stupid,  igno- 
rant, more  especially  in  religious  matters,  equally 
enslaved  to  sensuality  and  superstition,  and  capable 
of  the  most  abominable  and  flagitious  deeds.  This 
dismal  degeneracy  of  the  sacred  order  was,  accord- 
ing to  the  most  credible  accounts,  principally  owing 
to  the  pretended  chiefs  and  rulers  of  the  universal 
church,  who  indulged  themselves  in  the  commission 
of  the  most  odious  crimes,  and  abandoned  them- 
selves to  the  lawless  impulse  of  the  most  licentious 
j)assions,  without  reluctance  or  remorse ;  who  con- 
founded, in  short,  all  difference  between  just  and 
unjust,  to  satisfy  their  impious  ambition  ;  and  whose 
spiritual  empire  was  such  a  diversified  scene  of 
iniquity  and  violence  as  never  was  exhibited  under 
any  of  those  temporal  tyrants  who  have  been  the 
scourges  of  mankind."^  "Both  Greeks  and  Latins 
placed  the  essence  and  life  of  religion  in  the  worship 
of  images  and  departed  saints ;  in  searching  after, 
with  zeal,  and  preserving,  with  a  devout  care  and 
veneration,  the  sacred  relics  of  holy  men  and  women ; 
and  in  accumulating  riches  upon  the  priests  and 
monks,  whose  opulence  increased  with  the  progress 
of  superstition.  Scarcely  did  any  Christian  dare  to 
approach  the  throne  of  God,  without  first  rendering 
the  saints  and  images  propitious  by  a  solemn  round 
of  expiatory  rites  and  lustrations.  The  ardor,  also, 
with  which  relics  were  sought  surpasses  almost  all 
credibility ;  it  had  seized  all  ranks  and  orders  among 

1  Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  x.,  pt.  2,  ch.  ii.  1. 


APPENDIX.  291 

the  people,  aucl  was  grown  into  a  sort  of  fanaticism 
and  frenzy ;  and,  if  the  monks  are  to  be  believed, 
the  Supreme  Being  interposed,  in  an  especial  and  ex- 
traordinary manner,*  to  discover  to  doting  old  wives 
and  bareheaded  friars,  the  places  where  the  bones  or 
carcasses  of  the  saints  lay  dispersed  or  interred."* 
Such  was  the  as^e  of  midnio^ht  darkness. 

But,  though  no  new  heresies,  so  called,  arose  at 
this  period  within  the  two  vast  communities  which  ar- 
rogated to  themselves  the  appellation  of  The  Church, 
yet  one  earlier  and  very  powerful  sect,  that  of  the 
Paulicians,  still  existed  in  the  East,  and,  under  several 
names,  was  spread  in  the  West.  It  is  in  this  hetero- 
geneous body  that  modern  historians  ^  have  sought, 
with  some  appearance  of  success,  for  the  embryo 
germ  of  the  Reformation ;  and  it  is  among  the  same 
people  that  we  may  discover  some  vague  elements  of 
Universalism,  confused  and  doubtful  indeed  at  first, 
but  afterwards  assuming  a  more  distinct  character,  and 
coming  out  into  more  decided  results.  The  Pauli- 
cians were,  at  once,  descendants  and  dissenters  from 
the  Manicheans,  with  whose  Gnosticism  they  were 
considerably  tainted,  while  they  rejected  the  name 
with  the  utmost  abhorrence.  "  Extraordinary  as  it 
may  appear,  the  same  general  principles  from  which 

1  Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  x.,  pt.  2.  ch.  iii.  1. 

2  Mosheim  (Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  x.,  part  2,  ch.  v.  2,  and  cent,  xi.,  part  2,  ch.  v., 
compared  with  cent.  xii.  part  2,  ch.v.,etc.),  has  traced  the  Paulicians  down  into  the 
Albanenses,  Albigenses,  Cathari,  etc.,  etc.  Gibbon  (Decline  and  Fall,  etc.,  ch. 
liv.)  has  followed  the  same  line  of  descent,  and  connected  them  with  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  and  so  has  Priestley  (Hist,  of  the  Church,  period  xviii.,  sect,  vii.,  pp.  102—104. 
etc.).  Milncr  doubts  their  relation  to  the  forerunners  of  the  Reformation,  because 
he  is  not  convinced  of  their  dispersion  through  Europe  (Hist,  of  the  Church,  cent. 
ix.,  ch.  2)1  but  he  is  confident  that  they  were  very  good  saints.  Catholic  historians 
agree  fully  with  Gibbon,  as  it  regards  their  connection  with  the  Reformers. 


292  APPENDIX. 

were  derived,  in  the  very  age  of  the  apostles,  the 
earliest  corruptions  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  ^veYG 
the  means  of  bringing  about  the  reformation  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and,  having  effected  this  purpose^  they  are 
now  become  extinct."  ^ 

Of  the  rise,  doctrine,  and  progress  of  this  sect, 
many  particulars  are  very  uncertain;  but  we  may 
venture  to  follow,  with  some  confidence,  one  of  the 
most  clear-sighted  masters  of  history ,2  whose  account 
has,  in  the  present  afiair,  been  commended  both  by 
the  liberal  and  the  bigoted,  by  the  Protestant  and  the 
Catholic,  notwithstanding  his  general  hostility  to  re- 
vealed religion.  About  the  year  660,  we 
first  discover  this  people,  in  considerable 
numbers,  spreading  quietly  from  the  neighborhood 
of  Samosata,  in  the  upper  region  of  the  Euphra- 
tes, north-easterly  through  Armenia,  and  northerly 
through  Cappadocia  and  Pontus.  Descended  from 
the  Gnostics,  who  had  never  been  affected  with  the 
gradual  corruptions  of  the  Catholics,  they  abhorred 
the  use  of  images,  of  relics,  pompous  ceremonies,  and 
ecclesiastical  domination ;  and  they  even  dispensed 
with  the  rites  of  water  baptism  and  the  Lord's  sup- 
per. Their  preachers  were  distinguished  from  their 
brethren  by  no  title ;  and  no  superiority  was  allowed, 
except  what  arose  from  the  austerity  of  their  lives, 
their  zeal,  or  their  knowledge.  The  Manichean  books 
they  rejected,  and  likewise  the  Jewish,  as  they  called 

1  Priestley's  Hist,  of  the  Church,  period  xviii.,  sect,  vii.,  pp.  103,  104. 

2  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall,  etc.,  ch.  liv.  Miluer  says,  "■  The  candor  of  Gibbon  is 
remarkable  in  this  part  of  his  history.  O,  si  sic  omnia  !  "  and  the  learned  Charles 
Butler  (Book  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  note  at  the  end  of  Letter  xii.)  thinks 
this  tha  most  interesting  chapter  of  his  work. 


APPENDIX.  293 

the  Old  Testament;  but  the  New  Testament,  which 
in  the  orthodox  church  had  almost  disappeared  from 
the  laity,  they  received  as  the  only  volume  of  sacred 
Scripture,  and  enjoined  its  diligent  perusal  on  all  the 
people.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  they  dis- 
owned the  two  Epistles  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  Reve- 
lation of  St.  John ;  and  it  is  certain  that  their  favor- 
ite books  were  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  from  whom 
they,  perhaps,  took  their  name  of  Paulicians.  Still 
they  held  the  Manichean  notion  of  two  original  Prin- 
ciples, tlie  Good  and  the  Bad ;  and  they  looked  for- 
ward to  the  triumph  of  the  former  over  his  rival, 
either  by  the  entire  abolition,^  or  partial  conquest, 
of  death,  sin,  and  misery.  The  body  with  which 
Christ  was  seen  upon  earth,  together  with  his  cruci- 
fixion, they  supposed  to  have  been  apparent  only ; 
and  of  course  it  is  probable  that  they  denied  his  real 
resurrection,  and  that  of  mankind. 

Their   Oriental    notions    mi^rht,   with 

T    Ti  1  1  A .  D.  670  to  845. 

propriety,  be  disliked  by  the  church. 
But  the  downright  simplicity  of  their  institutions, 
their  total  disrespect  of  images  and  relics,  their  con- 
tempt of  all  those  artifices  by  which  the  craft  got 
their  living,  kindled  against  them  the  most  implacable 
hatred ;  and  the  orthodox  emperors  of  the  East  re- 
solved on  their  complete  extermination.  For  an 
hundred  and  fifty  years  they  sustained  a  bloody  per- 
secution, and  with  a  patience  and  inofiensive  meek- 
ness that  converted  even  some  of  their  executioners. 

1 1  have  ventured,  without  any  express  authority,  to  attribute  to  them  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion  among  themselves,  on  this  point ;  because  such  seems  to  have 
teen  the  case  with  their  predecessors,  the  Manicheana  and  other  Gnostics,  and 
also  with  their  descendants,  the  Albigenses,  etc. 


294       '  APPENDIX. 

But  all  human  endurance  may  at  length  be  overcome  ; 
and  when  that  sanguinary  zealot,  the  Empress  Theo- 
dora, succeeded  to  the  regency  of  the  East,  during 
her  son's  minority,  she  drove  them  beyond  the 
bounds  of  forbearance.  In  those  parts  of  Asia 
Minor  where  they  abounded,  and  in  Armenia,  she 
confiscated  their  goods,  and  put  to  death  by  the 
sword,  the  gibbet,  and  the  flames,  more  than  a  hun- 
dred thousand  of  their  number,  making  them  expire 
slowly  -by  a  variety  of  the  most  excruciating  tor- 
ments. Those  who  escaped  the  horrible  massacre 
fled  immediately  for  refuo-e  to  the  Sara- 

A.  D.  845  to  880.  T        .  T  .        T  .       . 

cens,  accepted  with  gi-atitude  permission 
to  build  a  city  on  the  frontiers  of  Armenia,  and 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  their  Mahometan  pro- 
tectors. They  soon  gathered  an  army,  and  marched 
back  to  avenge  on  the  Greeks  the  sufferings  of  their 
martyred  brethren.  The  war  was  carried  on,  with 
alternate  advantage,  about  forty  years  ;  but  towards 
the  close  of  the  century  the  power  of  the  Paulicians 
was  effectually  broken,  and  they  were  obliged  to  seek 
security  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Armenian  mountains. 
But  they  had  already  obtained  a  permanent  footing 
in  Europe.  About  the  middle  of  the  preceding  cen- 
tury, in  the  midst  of  those  persecutions  they  so 
patiently  endured,  a  colony  of  them  was  transported, 
by  one  of  the  Greek  emperors,  from  Asia  to  Thrace, 
westward  of  Constantinople.  With  a  zeal  which  no 
suflerings  could  repress,  they  labored  successfully  to 
diff'use  their  doctrine  among  their  northern  neighbors, 
the  Bulgarians,  in  the  lower  region  of  the  Danube. 
After   sustaining   many  hardships   and   cruelties   for 


APPENDIX.  295 

more  than  two  hundred  years,  they  were,  at  length, 
remforced  by  another  and  very  numer- 

1  n  k  .  T     ,1  A.  D.  970  to  1100. 

ous  colony  irom  Armenia  ;  and  they  were 
also  privileged  with  a  full  toleration  of  their  faith. 
In  course  of  time  they  occupied  a  line  of  villages 
and  castles  from  Thrace  westerly  through  Mace- 
donia and  Epirus ;  and  by  the  various  chances  of 
trade,  of  emigration  and  persecution,  they  became 
scattered,  in  small  numbers,  over  all  Europe.  Their 
Manichean  or  Oriental  principles  would  have  been, 
perhaps,  a  fatal  preventive  to  the  reception  of  their 
faith  among  the  people  of  the  West,  had  it  not  been 
counteracted  by  the  simplicity  of  their  religious  insti- 
tutions. A  strono^  thouo^h  secret  discontent  had  been 
generally  provoked  by  the  avarice,  the  despotism,  the 
mummery,  and  the  dissoluteness  of  the  Church  of 
Rome ;  and  when  the  oppressed  and  neglected  popu- 
lace beheld  a  sect  of  professed  Christians  blameless 
in  their  lives,  humble  in  their  demeanor,  and  dis- 
claiming all  tyranny  over  the  consciences  of  men,  the 
spectacle  was  so  attractive  to  many  that  they  became 
partial  converts  to  the  new  system,  and  adopted  even 
its  doctrines,  though  with  various  modifications. 
From  this  amalgamation  arose  all  those  sects  of  the 
eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
which  the  Catholic  writers  denominate  Manicheans, 
but  which  are  known  to  Protestants  under  the  name  of 
Albanenses,  Albigenses,  and  Cathari.  This  mongrel 
race,  it  is  well  known,  spread  through  Italy,  France, 
and  Germany ;  and,  for  a  long  period,  sufiered  from 
the  church  all  the  cruelty  that  cunning  could  devise 
and  power  inflict.     "It  was  about  the  year  1150,  that 


296  A]?PENDIX. 

several  parts  of  the  continent  had  become  pervaded 
by  men,  chiefly  of  the  poorer  and  laborious  classes 
of  life,  who  were  forming  themselves  into  religious 
communities,  distinct  from  the  established  Catholic 
chm'ch,  and  who  had  the  Scriptures  with  them  in  their 
vernacular  languages,  and  were  intently  and  critically 
comparing  the  tenets,  system,  and  conduct  of  the  papal 
clergy  with  the  precepts  and  instructions  of  the 
evangelists  and  apostles.  They  were  universally  dif- 
fused. In  France  they  were  called  Weavers,  Poor  of 
Lyons,  AYaldenses,  and  Albigenses ;  in  Flanders, 
Piphles ;  and  in  Germany,  Cathari.  They  were  at 
Bonn,  and  in  the  diocese  of  Cologne  ;  they  abounded 
near  the  Alps  and  Pyrenees  ;  they  were  greatly  dif- 
fused through  Provence  and  in  Tholouse  ;  they  existed 
in  Spain  ;  and  had  spread  through  Lombardy  to  Padua 
and  Florence,  and  some  had  even  entered  Naples. 
They  were  distinguished  for  their  missionary  spirit, 
and  the  caution  with  which  they  pursued  it."  ^ 

With  various  opinions  as  to  the  Manichean  doctrine 
of  two  original  Principles,  they  were,  nevertheless, 
united  in  denouncing  as  anti-Christian  the  authority, 
the  ceremonies,  and  the  whole  hierarchy  of  the  Eo- 
mish  communion.  It  is  probable  that  many  of  them 
held,  in  some  form,  the  doctrine  of  the  salvation  of 
all  souls  ;  for  of  this  they  are  accused  by  the  Catho- 
lic writers,  who  also  assert  that  they  denied  a  future 
judgment  and  future  punishment.^ 

1  History  of  England,  by  Sharon  Turner,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  381,  3S2,  Lond.,  1815,  N.  B. 
This  learned  and  philosophical  historian  follows  Gibbon,  in  deducing  the  above- 
named  sects  from  the  Paulicians. 

2  See  Gabrielis  Prateoli  Marcossii  Vita  Haereticorum,  art.  Albanenses,  Albigen- 
Be«,  etc.;  and  Bcrti  Breviarium  Hist.  Eccl.,  cent.  viii. — xii.,  cap.  3;  and  Notitia9 
Eccl.,  Pars  Tertia,  per  Sodalet.  Academ.  Bambergcnsem,  etc.  . 


APPENDIX.  297 

We  find  a  solitary  trace  of  Universalism,  at  this 
time,  among  the  monks  of  France.  At  the 
city  of  Nevers,  which  stands  on  the  river 
Loire,  about  a  hundred  and  forty  miles  south  of  Paris, 
one  Raynold,  who  presided  as  abbot  over  the  monas- 
tery of  St.  Martin,  was  accused,  in  a  council  held  this 
year  at  Sens,  of  maintaining  two  en-ors,  which  were 
doubtless  derived  from  the  Paulicians  :  1.  That  the 
bread  of  the  sacrament  was  corruptible,  and  that  it 
was  digested,  like  other  bread;  and,  2.  That  all  men 
will  eventually  be  saved,  as  Origen  had  taught.^ 
What  was  the  result  of  the  complaint  I  know  not. 

It  is,  perhaps,  impossible  to  determine  whether  we 
ouffht  to  rank  Amalric,  or  Amauri,  an 

.  ^  ni        '  -111  A.  D.  120O  to  1210. 

eminent  professor  of  logic  and  theology 
at  Paris ,  among  the  Universali  sts .  Li  ke  the  celebrated 
Wicklifie,^  he  was  charged  with  holding  the  pantheis- 
tical tenet  that  the  universe  is  God ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  whole  tenor  of  the  doctrine  attributed  to  him 
opposes  that  proposition,  at  least  in  its  exceptionable 
sense.  "According  to  Fleury,  he  held  that,  in  order 
to  be  saved,  every  person  must  believe  that  he  is  a 
member  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but,  the  Pope  condemning 
this  opinion,  he  retracted  it  before  his  death.  Fleury 
also  ascribes  to  the  followers  of  Amauri  an  opinion 
which  is  said  to  have  taken  its  rise  from  a  book 
by  Joachim,  entitled  The  Everlasting  Gosj^el,  namely, 
That  Jesus  Christ  abolished  the  old  law,  and  that 
in  his  time  commenced  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy 

1  Priestley's  Hist,  of  the  Christian  Church,  period  xviii.,  sect,  ix.,  pp.  136, 
137. 

2  Lenfant's  Hist,  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  hook  iii.,  ch.  42,  art.  28,  vol.  i., 
p. 419. 


2^8  APPENDIX. 

Spirit,  in  which  confession,  baptism,  the  eucharist, 
and  other  sacraments  would  have  no  place ;  but  that 
persons  might  be  saved  by  the  interior  grace  of  the 
IH-oly  Spirit,  without  any  external  acts.  He,  moreover, 
says  that  Amauri  denied  the  resurrection,  said  that 
heaven  and  hell  were  in  men's  own  breasts,  that  the 
Pope  was  antichrist,  and  Rome  Babylon."  ^  I  shall  now 
set  down,  in  their  own  words,  the  catalogue  which 
other  Catholic  writers  have  made  of  his  errors  :  "  1. 
Amalric  said  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  not  other- 
wise present  in  the  bread  of  the  sacrament  than  as  it 
is  in  other  bread,  and  in  everything  else ;  so  that  he 
denied  transubstantiation.  2.  He  said  that  God  had 
spoken  by  Ovid  as  much  as  by  Augustine.  3.  He 
denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  likewise 
heaven  and  hell ;  saying  that  whoever  enjoyed  the 
knowledge  of  God  in  himself  enjoyed  also  heaven  in 
himself,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  whoever  committed 
deadly  sin  experienced  hell  in  himself.  4.  He  as- 
serted that  to  dedicate  altars  to  the  saints,  to  burn 
incense  to  images,  and  to  invoke  the  saints,  was 
idolatry.  5.  He  affirmed,  not  only  with  the  Armeni, 
that  Adam  and  Eve  would  never  have  cohabited  had 
they  continued  in  their  first  state,  but  also  that  there 
would  have  been  no  diflerence  of  sex,  and  that  the 
multiplication  of  mankind  would  have  been  like  that 
of  the  angels,  thus  contradicting  what  is  written  in 
Genesis  :  God  created  man  in  Ids  own  image;  in  his 
image  created  he  him^  male  and  female.  6.  He  as- 
serted that  God  is  not  to  be  seen  in  himself,  but  in  liis 
creatures,  as  the  light  is  seen  in  the  air.     7.  He  said 

»  Priestley's  Hist,  of  the  Christ.  Church,  period  xix.,  sect,  xi.,  pp.  296—299. 


APPENDIX.  299 

that  what  would  otherwise  be  mortal  sin  would,  if 
done  in  charit}^  be  no  sin  :  thus  promising  impunity 
to  sinners.  8.  He  affirmed  that  those  ideas  which  are 
in  the  Divine  mind  are  both  capable  of  being  created, 
and  actually  are  created;  when  Augustine,  on  the 
contrary,  has  declared  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Di- 
vine mind  but  what  is  eternal  and  incommunicable. 
9.  He  fancied  that  the  soul  of  the  contemplative  or 
happy  saint  would  lose  itself,  as  to  its  own  nature, 
and  return  into  that  ideal  existence  which  it  had  in  the 
Divine  mind.  10.  He  taught  that  all  creatures,  in 
the  end,  would  return  into  God,  and  be  converted 
into  him ;  so  that  they  will  be  one,  individually, 
with  him."  ^  As  this  account  is  given  by  his  enemies, 
we  must  make  an  allowance  in  his  favor ;  and  it  is  not 
an  unreasonable  conclusion  that  he  only  opposed  the 
corruptions  and  errors  of  the  church,  that  he  adopted 
some  mystic  notions  which  then  prevailed  concerning 
spiritual  union  with  Deity,  and  that  he  believed  that 
God  would  finally  become  "  all  in  all."  With  regard 
to  the  resurrection,  he  may  have  made,  like  the  cele- 
brated Locke,  some  distinctions  which  gave  his  adver- 
saries occasion  to  charge  him  with  denying  it. 

Some  of  the  opinions  of  Amalric,  or  Amauri,  as  he 
is  generally  called,  were  condemned  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris,  and  likewise  by  Pope  Innocent  HI.,  and 
just  before  his  death  the  author  was  compelled  to 
retract  them.  But  he  left  disciples,  and,  in  a.  d. 
1209,  a  council  was  called  at  Paris,  in  which  ten  priests 
or  students  of  divinity  were  condemned  to  the  flames, 
and  four  to  perpetual   imprisonment.     At  the  same 

1  Summa  ConcUiorum;  per  M.  L.  Bail,  torn,  i.,  p.  432. 


300  APPENDIX. 

time,  the  name  of  Amaiiri,  who  had  died  in  peace, 
was  anathematized,  and  his  bones  were  dug  up  and 
thrown  upon  a  dunghill. 

Solomon,    metropolitan   Bishop  of   Bas- 

A.  D.  1222.  ^  ^ 

sorah,  on  the  Euphrates,  about  seventy 
miles  from  its  mouth,  was  a  writer  of  considerable 
renown,  among  the  Nestorians  of  the  East.  Some  of 
his  works,  in  the  Syriac  language,  yet  remain,  though 
only  in  manuscript.  In  one  of  them  he  discusses  the 
question,  "Whether  the  demons  and  sinners,  who  are 
now  in  hell,  shall  at  length  obtain  mercy,  after  having 
suffered  their  appointed  punishment,  and  been  puri- 
fied?" In  answer,  he  quotes  the  affirmative  opinion 
of  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  and  of  Diodorus  of 
Tarsus,  and  subscribes  to  it  himself.  He  also  endeav- 
ors to  show,  but  it  is  said  inconclusively,  that  other 
Nestorian  writers  taught  the  same  doctrine.^ 

I  present  to  the  reader  the  following? 

A.  D.  1230  to  1234.  ^  .  .  -,.^11. 

account  entn-e,  as  it  stands  m  a  Catholic 
historian.  I  add  no  remarks,  because  every  reflect- 
ing person  will  discover  much  incongruity  between 
the  different  parts  of  the  statement ;  and  every  one, 
who  is  at  all  acquainted  either  with  the  habitual  lan- 
guage of  the  old  Romish  authors  concerning  heretics, 
or  with  the  odious  representations  that  are  even  now 
given,  in  our  own  country,  concerning  Universalists, 
will  readily  understand  the  present  case  :  "  Among  all 
the  sects  which  started  up,  during  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, there  was  none  more  detestable  than  that  of  the 
Stadings,  which  showed  itself  by  the  outrages  and 
cruelties  which  it  exercised,  in  Germany,  a.  d.  1230, 

1  Aesemani  Biblioth.  Orientalis,  torn,  iii.,  par.  i.,  pp.  323,  324. 


APPENDIX.  301 

against  the  Catholics,  and  especially  against  the 
church-men.  Those  impious  persons  honored  Luci- 
fer, and  inveighed  against  God  himself,  believing  that 
he  had  unjustly  condemned  that  angel  to  darkness, 
that  one  day  he  would  be  re-established,  and  that  they 
should  be  saved  with  him.  Whereupon  they  taught, 
that,  until  that  time,  it  was  not  requisite  to  do  any- 
thing which  was  pleasing  to  God,  but  quite  the  con- 
trary. They  were  persuaded  that  the  devil  appeared 
in  their  assemblies.  They  therein  committed  infa- 
mous things,  and  uttered  strange  blasphemies.  It  is 
said,  that  after  they  had  received  the  eucharist,  at 
Easter,  from  the  hands  of  the  [Catholic]  priest,  they 
kept  it  in  their  mouths  without  swallowing  it,  in  order 
to  throw  it  away.  Those  heretics  spread  themselves 
in  the  bishopric  of  Breme,  and  in  the  frontiers  of 
Friezland  and  Saxony ;  and,  getting  to  a  head,  they 
massacred  the  ecclesiastics  and  monks,  pillaged  the 
churches,  and  committed  a  world  of  disorders.  Pope 
Gregory  IX.  excited  the  bishops  and  lords  of  those 
countries  to  make  war  against  them,  in  order  to  extir- 
pate that  wicked  race.  The  Archbishop  of  Breme,  the 
Duke  of  Brabant,  and  the  Count  of  Holland,  having 
raised  forces,  marched,  in  the  year  1234,  to  engage 
them.  They  made  a  vigorous  defence,  but  were  at 
last  defeated  and  cut  to  pieces.  Six  thousand  were 
killed  upon  the  spot;  the  rest  perished  in  several 
ways,  and  they  were  all  routed ;  so  that  there  were 
but  few  left,  who  were  converted  and  returned  to 
their  obedience  the  next  year."  ^ 

1  Du  Pin's  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  xi.,  ch,  is.,  p.  153. 


302  APPENDIX. 

"  The  sect  of  the  Lollards  spread 
through  Germany,  and  had  for  their 
leader  Walter  Lollard,  who  began  to  disperse  his 
errors  about  the  year  1315.  They  despised  the  sac- 
raments of  the  [Catholic]  church,  and  derided  her 
ceremonies  and  her  constitutions,  observed  not  the 
fasts  of  the  church,  nor  its  abstinences,  acknowledged 
not  the  intercession  of  the  [deceased]  saints,  and  be- 
lieved that  the  damned  in  hell,  and  the  evil  angels 
should  one  day  be  saved.  Trithemius,  who  recites 
the  errors  of  these  sectaries,  says  that  Bohemia  and 
Austria  were  infected  with  them ;  that  there  were 
above  twenty-four  thousand  persons  in  Germany  who 
held  these  errors  ;  and  that  the  greater  part  defended 
them  with  obstinacy,  even  unto  death."  ^ 

In  England,  Langham,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  convened  a  council,  in  a.  d. 
1368,  and,  with  the  advice  of  his  divines,  gave  judg- 
ment against  thirty  propositions  which  were  taught 
in  his  province.  Among  them,  the  following  opin- 
ions were  condemned  :  1 .  Every  man  ought  to  have 
the  free  choice  of  turning  to  God,  or  from  him ;  and 
according  to  this  choice  he  will  be  saved  or  damned. 
2.  Baptism  is  not  necessary  to  the  salvation  of 
infants.  3.  No  person  will  be  damned  for  original 
sin  only.  4.  Grace,  as  it  is  commonly  explained,  is 
an  illusion ;  and  eternal  life  may  be  acquired  by  the 
force  of  nature.  5.  Nothing  can  be  bad  merely  be- 
cause it  is  forbidden.  6.  The  fruit  that  Adam  was 
forbidden  to  eat  was  forbidden  because  it  was  in 
itself  bad.     7.  Man  is  necessarily  mortal,  Jesus  Christ 

1  Du  Pin's  Ecel.  Uist.,  vol.  xii.,  ch.  viii.,  p.  113. 


APPENDIX.  303 

included,  as  well  as  other  animals.  8.  All  the 
damned,  even  the  demons,  may  be  restored  and  be- 
come happy.  9.  God  cannot  make  a  reasonable 
creature  impeccable,  or  free  from  a  liability  to  sin. 
"  It  was  an  honor  to  the  age  and  to  the  country,"  says 
Priestley,  "  to  produce  such  sentiments  as  these  ;  but 
it  was  but  a  sudden  blaze  in  the  midst  of  much  thick 
darkness,  and,  as  far  as  appears,  was  soon  extin- 
guished." ^ 

"In  the  year  1411,  a  sect  was  dis- 

T      .         -r^,         T  ,  A.  D.  1400  to  1412. 

covered  m  Glanders,  and  more  espe- 
cially at  Brussels,  which  owed  its  origin  to  an  illiter- 
ate man,  whose  name  was  ^gidius  Cantor,  and  to 
William  of  Hildenissen,  a  Carmelite  monk,  and  whose 
members  were  distinguished  by  the  title  of  Men  of 
Understanding.  There  were  many  things,"  says 
Mosheim,  "  reprehensible  in  the  doctrine  of  this  sect, 
which  seemed  to  be  chiefly  derived  from  the  theology 
of  the  Mystics.  For  they  pretended  to  be  honored  with 
celestial  visions,  denied  that  any  could  arrive  at  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  without  the 
extraordinary  succors  of  a  divine  illumination ;  de- 
clared the  approach  of  a  ncAV  revelation  from  heaven, 
more  complete  and  perfect  than  the  gospel  of  Christ ; 
maintained  that  the  resurrection  was  already  accom- 
plished in  the  person  of  «Iesus,  and  that  no  other  res- 
urrection was  to  be  expected ;  affirmed  that  the 
inward  man  was  not  defiled  hj  the  outward  actions, 
whatever  they  were ;  that  the  pains  of  hell  were  to 
have  an  end,  and  that,  not  only  all  mankind,  but  even 

I  Priestley's  Hist,  of  tho  Christian  Clmroh.  period  xx.,  sect,  xii.,  pp.  498, 499.    See 
also  Du  loin's  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  xii.,  ch.  viii.,  p.  115. 


304  APPENDIX. 

the  devils  themselves,  were  to  return  to  God,  and  be 
made  partakers  of  eternal  felicity.  This  sect  seems 
to  have  been  a  branch  of  that  of  The  Brethren  and 
Sisters  of  the  Free  Spirit;  since  they  declared  that  a 
new  dispensation  of  grace  and  spiritual  liberty  was  to 
be  promulgated  to  mortals  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It 
must,  however,  be  acknowledged,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  their  absurdities  were  mingled  with  several  opin- 
ions which  showed  that  they  were  not  totally  void  of 
understanding;  for  they  maintained,  among  other 
things,  1.  That  Christ  alone  had  merited  eternal  life 
and  felicity  for  the  human  race,  and  that,  therefore, 
men  could  not  acquire  this  inestimable  privilege  by 
their  own  actions  alone  ;  2.  That  the  priests,  to  whom 
the  people  confessed  their  transgressions,  had  not  the 
power  of  absolving  them,  but  that  it  was  Christ  alone 
in  whom  this  authority  was  vested ;  and,  3.  That  vol- 
untary penance  and  mortification  were  not  necessary 
to  salvation.  These  propositions,  however,  and  some 
others,  were  declared  heretical  by  Peter  D'Ailly, 
Bishop  of  Cambray,  who  obliged  William  of  Hilden- 
issen  to  abjure  them,  and  who  opposed  with  the  great- 
est vehemence  and  success  the  progress  of  this  sect."  ^ 
Such  is  Mosheim's  accouut,  which  is  the  most  particu- 
lar I  have  seen. 

John  Picus,  Earl  of  Mirandola   and 
Concordia,   a   distinguished   scholar  in 
Italy,  alarmed  the  church,  about  this  period,  by  ad- 
vancing some  opinions  which  properly  come  under  our 
notice.     From  infancy  he  had  evinced  a  remarkable 

1  Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  xv.,  part  ii.,  ch.  v.  4. 


APPENDIX.  305 

quickness  of  mind  and  a  prodigious  memory.  At  the 
age  ol  fourteen  he  studied  law  at  Bologne  ;  and  after- 
wards spent  seven  years  in  visiting  the  most  famous 
universities  of  France  and  Italy,  and  in  conversing 
with  the  learned  of  those  countries.  He  then  went  to 
Rome ;  and  in  a.  d.  1486,  when  he  was  only  twenty- 
one  years  old,  he  published,  in  this  city,  nine  hundred 
propositions  upon  various  subjects  in  the  several 
branches  of  theology,  magic,  the  cabalistic  art,  and 
philosophy,  and  engaged  to  maintain  them  in  public 
disputation,  according  to  a  custom  of  those  times. 
These  propositions  were,  for  the  most  part,  either  of 
a  metaphysical  kind,  or  of  a  character  merely  verbal ; 
but  among  them  were  the  following,  of  a  more  impor- 
tant nature  :  "  Jesus  Christ  did  not  descend  into  hell 
in  person,  but  only  in  effect.  Infinite  pain  is  not  due 
even  to  mortal  sin;  because  sin  is  finite,  and  there- 
fore merits  but  finite  punishment.  Neither  crosses  nor 
imaofes  ous^ht  to  be  adored.  There  is  more  reason  to 
believe  that  Origen  was  saved  than  that  he  was 
damned,  etc."  But,  instead  of  a  controversy  which 
he  had  challenged,  he  found  that  other  means  were 
likely  to  be  employed  in  refuting  him.  His  enemies 
sounded  the  alarm  of  heresy ;  the  Pope  appointed 
commissioners  to  examine  his  publications  ;  and,  to 
his  dismay,  they  at  length  brought  in  a  judgment 
censuring  the  foregoing  propositions,  together  with 
nine  others,  some  of  which  seemed  to  disagree  with 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  Upon  this,  Picus 
wrote  an  Apology,  and  by  means  of  metaphysical 
subtleties  explained  away  the  heretical  character  of 


306  APPENDIX. 

the  obnoxious  propositions,  and  humbly  submitted 
himself  to  the  Holy  See.  As  to  his  former  statement 
concerning  the  demerit  of  sin,  he  now  endeavored  to 
reconcile  it  with  the  doctrine  of  endless  misery. 
After  all,  the  Pope  forbade  the  reading  of  his  books  ; 
and  some  time  afterwards,  when  Picus  had  retired 
from  Rome,  he  was  cited  to  appear  before  the  tribunal 
of  the  church.  But  while  this  was  yet  pending  he 
obtained  an  absolution  from  the  pontiff,  in  the  year 
1493.  After  this  he  devoted  himself  wholly  to  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures  and  to  controversial  writings, 
resigning  his  earldom,  and  distributing  all  his  goods 
among  the  jDoor.  He  died  at  Florence,  a.  d.  1494, 
aged  only  twenty-nin6  years. ^ 

In  the  year  1498,  a  Spanish  prelate, 
by  the  name  of  Peter  D'Aranda,  was 
degraded  and  condemned  to  j)erpetual  imprisonment 
in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  at  Rome,  on  being  con- 
victed, it  is  said,  of  Judaism.  He  was  Bishop  of 
Calahorra  in  Old  Castile,  near  the  river  Ebro  ;  and  he 
held  the  office  of  Master  of  the  sacred  palace.  He  is 
said  to  have  taught  that  the  Jewish  religion  acknowl- 
edged but  one  Principle,  while  the  Christian  recog- 
nized three,  —  alluding  probably  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  "  In  his  prayers  he  said.  Glory  to  the  Father, 
without  adding,  to  the  Son,  or,  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  said  that  indulgences  were  of  no  avail,  but  were 
invented  for  the  profit  that  was  drawn  from  them ; 
that  there  was  neither  purgatory  nor  hell,  but  only 
paradise.     He  observed  no  fasts,  and  said  mass  after 

1  Du  Pin's  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  xiii.,  ch.  4,  pp.  95,  96. 


APPENDIX.  307 


dinner.  From  his  saying  mass,  or  receiving  the  Lord's 
supper,  it  is  evident  he  Avas  not  a  Jew,  but  probably 
a  Unitarian  Christian."^ 

»  Priestley's  Hist,  of  the  Christian  Church,  period  xxi.,  sect.  vii. 


IISTDEX 


Alexander,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  his 
friendship  with  Origen,  105. 

Ambrose  believed  in  endless  punish- 
ment for  only  a  few,  187. 

Ambrositjs,  a  convert  of  Origen,  107. 
A  Universalist,  107.  Requested 
Origen  to  prepare  several  works  in- 
culcating Universalism,  and  pro- 
vided necessary  pecuniary  aid  for 
it,  107. 

Amalric,  the  condemnation  of  his 
opinions  proves  him  a  Universalist, 
299.     Anathematized,  300. 

Anastasius,  the  Pope,  condemns 
Origen's  works,  211. 

Annihilation  of  the  wicked  taught 
by  Arnobius,  133. 

Arians  were  never  reproached  for 
avowal  of  Universalism,  189. 

Aristides  incorporates  Grecian  phi- 
losophy with  Christianity,  18. 

Athanasius  quotes  Origen  as  ortho- 
dox, 145. 

Athenagoras  gives  no  intimation  of 
the  duration  of  punishment,  45. 

Athenodorus  a  pupil  of  Origen,  87, 
110. 

Augustine  a  patron  of  the  Maniche- 
ans,  190.  Attempts  to  prove  that 
the  word  everlasting  always  means 
endless,  233.  The  father  of  the  doc- 
trines of  total  depravity  and  partial 
election,   237,  241. 

AviTAS  teaches  the  salvation  of  all 
beings,  including  the  devil  and 
apostate  angels,  233. 

Barnabas,  his  opinions  respecting  the 
duration  of  punishment  indefinite, 
20. 

Basil  the  Great  inclined  to  Univer- 
salism, 155.  An  admirer  of  Origen's 
writings,  156. 


Basilides  taught  that  reformation 
and  improvement  are  the  objects  of 
punishments,  27. 

Carpocrates  believed  in  the  final 
salvation  of  all  souls,  28. 

Chrysostom  receives  persecuted  Ori- 
genists,  214. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus  a  Univer- 
salist, 52.  Teaches  that  all  pun- 
ishment is  for  the  good  of  the  pun- 
ished, 53,  54,  56,  58.  The  same 
means  which  are  employed  on  earth 
to  save  men,  are  employed  among 
the  dead  for  their  salvation,  55,  He 
avoids  the  use  of  the  phrases  "  Ever- 
lasting," and  "  forever  and  ever," 
in  connection  with  misery,  57.  A 
sketch  of  his  doctrines,  58,  59.  His 
Universalism  not  reprehended  by 
his  cotemporaries.  Origon  one  of 
his  pupils,  61,   73. 

Clemej^t,  of  Rome,  his  belief  in  re- 
gard to  the  duration  of  future 
punishment  uncertain,  12.  He 
probably  believed  in  the  salvation 
of  all  mankind,  note  1,  p.  12.  Be- 
lieved in  a  partial  resurrection,  note 
2,  p.  17. 

Clement,  the  presbyter,  a  Universal- 
ist, 286.  Condemned  as  a  heretic  by 
councils  of  Soissons   and  Rome,  287. 

Cyprian  held  to  endless  punishment 
for  unbelievers,  117. 

DiDYMTJS,  the  Blind,  a  Universalist, 
175,  176.  Writings  condemned  by 
the  Fifth  General  Council,  280. 
Anathema  against  his  writings 
repeated  by  the  First  Lateran  Coun- 
cil, 283.  Also  by  the  Sixth,  .Sev- 
enth, and  Eighth  General  Councils, 
283,  284. 

309 


310 


INDEX. 


Devil,  the  salvation  of,  an  objection- 
able doctrine  of  Origen,  195,  212, 
213,  217,  219.  The  doctrine  openly 
taught  in  a  province  of  Spain,  231, 
233. 

DioDORUS,  Bishop  of  Tarsus,  a  Uni- 
versalist,  185.  No  fault  found  with 
him  for  his  Universalism  for  many 
centuries  after  his  death,  186. 

DoMiTiAN  -revives  the  persecution  of 
the  Christians,  8. 

DoMiTiAN,  the  Abbot,  probably  a  Uni- 
versalist,  265.  Made  Bishop  of 
Galatia,  265.  His  opinions  con- 
demned by  the  Emperor  Justinian, 
271. 

Epiphanius,  Bishop  of  Salamis,  passes 
over  Origeff's  Universalism  in  si- 
lence, 161.  The  first  to  condemn 
Universalism,  195,  197.  The  con- 
demnation receives  but  little  atten- 
tion, 201. 

Erigena,  John  Scotus,  taught  the 
opinion  of  Origen  concerning  the 
final  restoration  of  all  fallen  crea- 
tures, 288. 

Eternal,  the  word  first  applied  to 
suffering  by  the  Fathers,  20. 

EusEBius  writes  a  defence  of  Origen, 
138.  Charged  with  being  a  Univer- 
salist  for  defending  Origen,  141. 
His  admiration  of  Origen,  142. 

EusEBius  Pamphiltjs  reproaches  many 
of  Origen's  doctrines,  but  not  his 
Universalism,  147. 

EvAGRius  PoxTicus,  pronounced  a 
Universalist,  181.  His  writings  con- 
demned by  the  Fifth  General  Coun- 
cil, 280.  The  anathema  against  his 
writings  repeated  by  the  first  Late- 
ran  Council,  283.  Also  by  the  Sixth 
Seventh  and  Eighth  General  Coun- 
cils, 283,   284. 

Everlasting,  the  word  first  applied 
to  suffering  by  the  Fathers,  20.  The 
word  used  in  a  limited  sense  in  the 
Sibylline  Oracles,  38.  Also  by 
Justin  Martyr,  41.  The  use  of  the 
word  by  orthodox  writers,  50.  Not 
used  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus  in 
connection  with  misery,  57.  Origen 
uses  it  in  a  limited  sense,  82,  98. 
Cyrill  uses  it  in  an  uncertain  sense, 
149.  Gregory  Nyssen  uses  it  as 
limited,    172.     Augustine  attempts 


to  maintain   that  the  word  always 
signifies  endless,  233. 

FABitrs  Marius  Victorinxts  seems  to 
teach  Universalism,  150. 

Fifth  General  Council,  a  plot  which 
contributed  to  the  calling  of  it,  275. 
The  Council  opened,  277.  Con- 
demned the  doctrines  of  Origen,  279. 
The  condemnation  of  Universalism 
by  the  Council,  questioned,  281, 
note  a. 

FiRMiLiAX  becomes  a  pupil  of  Origen, 
87,  108. 

Forever  and  ever  not  used,  by  Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus,  in  connection 
with  misery,  57. 

Freedom  of  the  Will,  the  Manichean 
belief  respecting  it,  126. 

Gehenna,  Origen's  opinion  of  it  con- 
demned by  Jerome,  228,  note  3. 

Gnostics  separated  themselves  from 
the  other  believers,  10,  67.  Believed 
that  Christ's  mission  was  not  to  satisfy 
any  vindictive  justice  of  Deity,  23. 
Some  of  them  held  the  final  salvation 
of  all,  25,  27,  28.  Their  Univer- 
salism not  regarded  as  obnoxious  by 
the  orthodox  fathers,  32.  The  sects 
flourished  as  late  as  A.  D.  190. 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  his  indecision 
respecting  universal  salvation,  163. 

Gregory  Nyssen,  adopted  and  taught 
Universalism,  169.  Believed  punish- 
ment is  remedial,  171.  Not  con- 
demned for  his  Universalism,  174. 
Germanus  attempts  to  prove  that  he 
was  not  a  Universalist,  285. 

Gregory  Thaumaturgus  becomes  a 
pupil  of  Origen,  87,  110.  Why 
called  Thaumaturgus,  113.  Held 
the  doctrine  of  Universal  Restora- 
tion, note  2,  p.  113. 

Grecian  philosophy  first  incorporated 
with  Christianity,  18.  Rapidly  mod- 
ifies the  Christian  religion,  33.  As 
it  prevailed  in  the  church  the 
secrets  of  the  infernal  realm  were 
brought  more  fully  to  light,  51. 

Heraclas,     Bishop     of    Alexandria, 

converted  by  Origen,  106. 
Hermas     seems    to    teach    salvation 

after  punibhment,  22. 


INDEX. 


311 


Hilary,  of  Poietiers,  imitates  Origen, 
145. 

Iren^us  appears  to  think  the  unjust 
tvill  be  annihilated,  48.  His  formal 
summary  of  faith,  48. 

IsiDORUs,  of  Alexandria,  a  Universal- 
ist,  184. 

Jerome  a  Universalist,  177.  Evi- 
dence of  it  from  his  works,  178,  179. 
Accused  of  inconsistency,  206.  The 
doctrine  of  restoration  from  hell 
not  regarded  as  heinous  by  him, 
207.  His  commentaries  teach  final 
restoration,  219.  Opposed  Origen 
from  grudge  and  policy,  222.  Proba- 
bly a  Universalist  in  secret,  229. 

JoHX  of  Jerusalem,  evidence  that  he 
was  a  Universalist,  184.  His  friends 
did  not  consider  Origen's  Book  of 
Principles  heretical,  205. 

Justinian,  Emperor,  condemns  the 
doctrines  of  Origen,  269,  278. 

Leontius  probably  a  Universalist, 
262,  265.  His  death  and  character, 
274. 

Lollards,  the  sect  of,  302.  They 
defended  their  faith  in  the  final 
restoration,  even  unto  death,  302. 

Manichean  sect  began  to  appear,  121. 
Held  two  original,  self-existent 
principles,  123.  Their  doctrine  of 
free-will,  126,  note  1.  Some  of 
them  believed  in  the  restoration  of 
all  souls,  127,  128.  Augustine  pat- 
ronizes them,  190.  Closing  notice 
of  them,  253. 

Martyr,  Justin,  adopts  the  philo- 
sophic notions  of  Aristides,  18. 
Intimates  that  the  wicked  will  be 
eventually  annihilated,  41. 

MARCELLUS,Bishop  of  Ancyra,  held  the 
doctrine  of  universal  salvation,  145. 

Melania,  although  an  Origenist,  hon- 
ored with  the  title  of  saint,  226. 

Men  of  Understanding,  the  sect  of, 
held  that  the  pains  of  hell  were  to 
cease,  303. 

Minucius  Felix  asserts  the  strict 
eternity  of  hell  torments,  65.  In 
treating  of  the  infernal  regions,  he 
uses  the  language  and  views  of 
ancient  heathen  poets,  66. 


Monks,  followers  of  Origen  among 
them,  158. 

NoNNtJS  probably  a  Universalist,  262, 

265,  272.     His  death  and  character, 

274. 
NovATUS  asserts  the  principles  of  Uni- 

versalism,  note  1,  p.  115. 
Nyssa,  the  Bishop  of,  a  Universalist, 

155. 

Orthodox,  one  class  of  them  Univer- 
salists,  231. 

Origen,  his  birth,  72.  His  early  edu- 
cation, 72.  The  martyrdom  of  his 
father,  and  the  poverty  of  the  fam- 
ily, 74.  Published  a  work  advo- 
cating universal  salvation,  69. 
Taught  the  doctrine  of  Universal- 
ism,  and  the  pre-existence  of  souls, 
together,  70,  71,  79.  Begins  to 
give  religious  instruction,  74.  His 
rigid  abstinence  and  laborious 
study,  75.  Persecuted  by  the  hea- 
then, 75.  His  great  learning,  76, 
77.  Ambrosius  becomes  his  pupil 
and  benefactor,  77.  Flees  from 
Alexandria  to  escape  the  persecu- 
tion of  Caracalla,  and  expounds  the 
Scriptures  at  Cesarea,  77.  The 
Bishop  of  Alexandria  forbids  him, 
a  layman,  to  preach  before  bishops, 
and  orders  him  to  return  to  Alexan- 
dria, 78.  By  request,  he  visits  the 
mother  of  Emperor  Alexander  to 
teach  her  Christian  doctrine,  78. 
Begins  his  Commentaries,  78.  Is 
ordained  Presbyter,  79.  Publishes 
some  of  his  Commentaries,  79.  All 
administrations  and  appointments 
of  Providence  directed  to  reclaim 
the  degenerate,  80.  A  believer  in 
the  freedom  of  the  will,  81,  note  2, 
p.  82.  The  progress  of  souls  after 
death,  82.  His  allegorical  method 
of  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  83, 
84.  Persecution  by  the  Bishop  of 
Alexandria  drives  him  into  Pales- 
tine, 85.  Is  deposed  from  sacerdo- 
tal dignity  by  an  assembly  of  bish- 
ops, 86.  Was  not  condemned  for 
error  of  doctrine,  86.  He  opens  a 
school  in  Cesarea,  and  Firmilian 
and  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  and 
Athenodorus  became  his  pupils,  87. 
Completes  his  great  work,  the  Hex- 


312 


INDEX. 


apla,  or  Octapla,  89,  90.  His  Uni- 
versalism  not  a  cause  of  the  hostility 
to  him,  note  1,  p.  91.  His  suflfer- 
ings  during  the  persecution  by 
Decius,  92,  93.  His  death,  93. 
Why  surnained  Adamantius,  94. 
Estimate  of  his  character,  94.  Pas- 
sages in  his  works  in  which  he 
teaches  Universalism,  notes  2  and  a, 
p.  95.  Inculcates  Universalism  in 
his  defence  of  Christianity  against 
Celsus,  96,  97.  His  Universalism 
not  advanced  in  the  way  of  contro- 
versy with  the  orthodox,  98.  The 
orthodox  did  not  oppose  his  Univer- 
salism, 98.  Texts  he  adduced  in 
favor  of  Universalism,  note  2,  p.  98. 
The  salvation  of  all  men  belongs  to 
the  Christian  mysteries,  99.  Extent 
of  his  influence,  104.  Universalism 
not  confined  to  his  adherents,  114. 
Why  his  influence  did  not  reach  the 
West,  114.  His  Universalism  gave 
no  offence  as  late  as  390,  130,  133. 
Eusebius  and  Pamphilus  write  in 
defence  of  him,  138.  His  Univer- 
salism not  censured  by  his  oppo- 
nents, 139,  140.  Admired  by  Euse- 
bius, 142.  Athanasius  quotes  him 
as  orthodox,  145.  Hilary,  of  Poic- 
tiers,  imitates  him,  145.  Basil  the 
Great,  Didymus,  and  the  two  Greg- 
ories,  Nazianzen  and  Nyssen,  are 
warm  admirers  of  him,  146.  His 
Universalism  not  reproached  by 
Eusebius  Pamphilus,  147.  His  fol- 
lowers among  the  monks,  158.  His 
violent  opposer,  Epiphanius,  Bishop 
of  Salamis,  passes  over  his  Univer- 
salism in  silence,  161.  Didymus, 
the  Blind,  considered  Origen  his 
master,  175.  His  books  of  Princi- 
ples contain  Universalism,  205.  His 
books  of  Principles  not  considered 
heretical  by  Jerome's  friends,  205. 
His  first  condemnation,  209.  His 
followers  persecuted,  210,  211.  His 
works  condemned  by  Pope  Anasta- 
sius,  211.  They  are  condemned  by 
a  synod  in  Cyprus,  212.  The  salva- 
tion of  the  devil  his  most  objection- 
able doctrine,  195,  212,  213.  His 
doctrine  of  the  salvation  of  all 
mankind  not  condemned,  213. 
Reluctant  acquiescence  of  the  ortho- 
dox with   the  condemnation  of  his 


works,  213.  His  followers  perse- 
cuted, 214.  Final  restoration  not 
considered  an  important  error  of 
Origen,  220.  His  opinions  promul- 
gated by  monks,  in  Palestine,  264, 
266.  His  doctrines  condemned  by 
the  Emperor  Justinian,  269.  His 
doctrines  condemned  by  the  Fifth 
General  Council,  279.  Origenists 
driven  from  Palestine,  281.  Anath- 
ema against  him  repeated  by  tho 
First  Lateran  Council,  283.  Also 
by  the  Sixth,  Seventh,  and  Eighth 
General  Councils,  283,  284. 

Palladius,  of  Galatia,  a  Univeralist, 
183. 

Paxphilus  writes  in  defence  of  Ori- 
gen, 138.  Charged  with  being  a 
Universalist,  for  defending  Origen, 
141. 

Paulicians,  elements  of  Universal- 
ism discovered  among  them,  291. 
Their  characteristics,  292.  Their 
persecution,  294.  Many  of  them 
probably  held  the  salvation  of  all 
souls,  296. 

Picus,  John,  Earl  of  Mirandola, 
teaches  that  sin  merits  only  finite 
punishment,  305. 

PoLYCARP,  his  opinion  respecting 
the  extent  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
16.  A  believer  in  a  partial  resur- 
rection, note  2,  p.  17. 

Punishment,  diversity  of  opinion 
respecting  its  duration  occasioned 
no  divisions  or  controversies  among 
the  Christians  at  the  beginning  of 
the  third  century,  67.  Remedial, 
153.  So  taught  by  Gregory  Nys- 
sen, 171. 

Raynold,  an  Abbot  of  France,  accused 
of  holding  that  all  men  will  event- 
ually be  saved,  297. 

Sibylline  oracles  teach  Universalism, 
note  a,  p.  35.  Contain  the  earliest 
explicit  statement  of  a  restoration 
from  the  torments  of  hell,  37. 

Solomon,  Bishop  of  Bassora,  affirms 
the  opinions  of  Theodorus  and  Dio- 
dorus,  300. 

Stadings,  the  representation  of  the 
sect  by  Catholic  historians,  300. 


INDEX. 


313 


Tertullian  seems  to  have  been  the 
first  Christian  writer  who  asserted 
that  the  torments  of  the  damned  will 
equal  in  duration  the  happiness  of 
the  blest,  63.  The  doctrine  accorded 
with  his  disposition,  64.  In  treating 
of  the  infernal  regions,  he  uses  the 
language  and  views  of  ancient 
heathen  poets,  65. 

Theodorus,  of  Mopsuestia,  a  Univer- 
salist,  243.  Opposes  Augustine's 
doctrines  of  depravity,  245.  Was 
not  reproached  for  his  doctrines  un- 
til after  his  death,  246.  Anathe- 
matized for  his  Universalism  by  the 
Fifth  General  Council,  278. 

Theodoret,  Bishop  of  CyruS;  a  Univer- 
salist,  247,  note  1. 

Theodorus  Ascidtjs,  the  deacon,  prob- 
ably a  Universalist,  265.  Made 
bishop  of  Cappadocia,  265.  His 
opinions  condemned  by  the  Empe- 
ror Justinian,  271. 

Theophilus  of  Antioch  teaches  final 
restoration,  note  a,  46. 

Theophilus,  of  Alexandria,  persecutes 
the  Origenists,  210,  211,  214.  Op- 
poses Origen  from  grudge  and 
policy,  222. 

Titus,  Bishop  of  Bostra,  taught  the 
final  restoration,  152. 

Universalism,  the  state  of  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  third    century,  66. 


Not  heretical  nor  unpopular,  148. 
Seems  to  be  taught  by  Fabius  Ma- 
rina Victorinus,  150.  The  senti- 
ment of  a  majority  of  the  eminent 
fathers  of  the  East,  162.  Adopted 
and  taught  by  Gregory  Nyssen,  169. 
Condemned  first  by  Epiphanius  of 
Salamis,  195,  197.  This  condemna- 
tion receives  but  little  attention, 
201.  Universalism  never  recovered 
entirely,  from  the  check  received  by 
its  condemnation,  222.  Prevailed 
among  the  monks  of  Palestine,  246. 
Notices  of  it  within  Koman  territory 
not  found  after  A.  d.  500.  The 
historians  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and 
Theodoret  favorably  disposed  to- 
wards it,  249.  Causes  for  the 
silence  of  history  respecting  Univer- 
salism7252.  Stephen  Bar-Saduilii, 
the  only  teacher  of  Universalism  at 
this  period,  252.  Its  condemnation 
by  the  Fifth  General  Council, 
questioned,  281,  note  a.  Its  history 
from  the  Fifth  General  Council  to 
the  Eeformation.  282.  Attracts 
attention  in  the  East,  286.  Vague 
elements  of  it  discovered  among  the 
Paulicians,  291.  A  solitary  trace 
of  it  among  the  monks  of  France, 
297.  Condemned  by  a  Council  called 
by  tho  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
302. 


